Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations.[10]Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, or an amalgamation of both. Ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascar's development strategy. Under Ravalomanana, these investments produced substantial economic growth, but the benefits were not evenly spread throughout the population, producing tensions over the increasing cost of living and declining living standards among the poor and some segments of the middle class. As of 2017[update], the economy has been weakened by the 2009–2013 political crisis, and quality of life remains low for the majority of the Malagasy population.

On St. Laurence's Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island and named it São Lourenço. Polo's name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. No single Malagasy-language name predating Madagasikara appears to have been used by the local population to refer to the island, although some communities had their own name for part or all of the land they inhabited.[13]

The prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana separated the Madagascar–Antarctica–India landmass from the Africa–South America landmass around 135 million years ago. Madagascar later split from India about 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve in relative isolation.[17] Along the length of the eastern coast runs a narrow and steep escarpment containing much of the island's remaining tropical lowland forest.

To the west of this ridge lies a plateau in the center of the island ranging in altitude from 750 to 1,500 m (2,460 to 4,920 ft) above sea level. These central highlands, traditionally the homeland of the Merina people and the location of their historic capital at Antananarivo, are the most densely populated part of the island and are characterized by terraced, rice-growing valleys lying between grassy hills and patches of the subhumid forests that formerly covered the highland region. To the west of the highlands, the increasingly arid terrain gradually slopes down to the Mozambique Channel and mangrove swamps along the coast.[18]

The grassy plains that dominate the western landscape are dotted with stony massifs (left), patches of deciduous forest, and baobab trees (center), while the south is characterized by desert and spiny forests (right).

Madagascar's highest peaks rise from three prominent highland massifs: Maromokotro 2,876 m (9,436 ft) in the Tsaratanana Massif is the island's highest point, followed by Boby Peak 2,658 m (8,720 ft) in the Andringitra Massif, and Tsiafajavona 2,643 m (8,671 ft) in the Ankaratra Massif. To the east, the Canal des Pangalanes is a chain of man-made and natural lakes connected by canals built by the French just inland from the east coast and running parallel to it for some 600 km (370 mi).[19]

The western and southern sides, which lie in the rain shadow of the central highlands, are home to dry deciduous forests, spiny forests, and deserts and xeric shrublands. Due to their lower population densities, Madagascar's dry deciduous forests have been better preserved than the eastern rain forests or the original woodlands of the central plateau. The western coast features many protected harbors, but silting is a major problem caused by sediment from the high levels of inland erosion carried by rivers crossing the broad western plains.[19]

The combination of southeastern trade winds and northwestern monsoons produces a hot rainy season (November–April) with frequently destructive cyclones, and a relatively cooler dry season (May–October). Rain clouds originating over the Indian Ocean discharge much of their moisture over the island's eastern coast; the heavy precipitation supports the area's rain forest ecosystem. The central highlands are both drier and cooler while the west is drier still, and a semi-arid climate prevails in the southwest and southern interior of the island.[18]

Tropical cyclones annually cause damage to infrastructure and local economies as well as loss of life.[20] In 2004 Cyclone Gafilo became the strongest cyclone ever recorded to hit Madagascar. The storm killed 172 people, left 214,260 homeless[21] and caused more than US$250 million in damage.[22]

The island's iconic traveller's palm (ravinala) features in the national emblem.

As a result of the island's long isolation from neighboring continents, Madagascar is home to an abundance of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.[23][24] Approximately 90% of all plant and animal species found in Madagascar are endemic,[25] including the lemurs (a type of strepsirrhine primate), the carnivorous fossa and many birds. This distinctive ecology has led some ecologists to refer to Madagascar as the "eighth continent",[26] and the island has been classified by Conservation International as a biodiversity hotspot.[23]

The ring-tailed lemur is one of over 100 known species and subspecies of lemur found only in Madagascar.[44]

Like its flora, Madagascar's fauna is diverse and exhibits a high rate of endemism. Lemurs have been characterized as "Madagascar's flagship mammal species" by Conservation International.[23] In the absence of monkeys and other competitors, these primates have adapted to a wide range of habitats and diversified into numerous species. As of 2012[update], there were officially 103 species and subspecies of lemur,[45] 39 of which were described by zoologists between 2000 and 2008.[46] They are almost all classified as rare, vulnerable, or endangered. At least 17 species of lemur have become extinct since humans arrived on Madagascar, all of which were larger than the surviving lemur species.[47]

A number of other mammals, including the cat-like fossa, are endemic to Madagascar. Over 300 species of birds have been recorded on the island, of which over 60 percent (including four families and 42 genera) are endemic.[23] The few families and genera of reptile that have reached Madagascar have diversified into more than 260 species, with over 90 percent of these being endemic[48] (including one endemic family).[23] The island is home to two-thirds of the world's chameleon species,[48] including the smallest known,[49] and researchers have proposed that Madagascar may be the origin of all chameleons.

Endemic fish of Madagascar include two families, 15 genera and over 100 species, primarily inhabiting the island's freshwater lakes and rivers. Although invertebrates remain poorly studied on Madagascar, researchers have found high rates of endemism among the known species. All 651 species of terrestrial snail are endemic, as are a majority of the island's butterflies, scarab beetles, lacewings, spiders and dragonflies.[23]

Madagascar's varied fauna and flora are endangered by human activity.[50] Since the arrival of humans around 2,350 years ago, Madagascar has lost more than 90 percent of its original forest.[51] This forest loss is largely fueled by tavy ("fat"), a traditional slash-and-burn agricultural practice imported to Madagascar by the earliest settlers.[52] Malagasy farmers embrace and perpetuate the practice not only for its practical benefits as an agricultural technique, but for its cultural associations with prosperity, health and venerated ancestral custom (fomba malagasy).[53] As human population density rose on the island, deforestation accelerated beginning around 1400 years ago.[54] By the 16th century, the central highlands had been largely cleared of their original forests.[52] More recent contributors to the loss of forest cover include the growth in cattle herd size since their introduction around 1000 years ago, a continued reliance on charcoal as a fuel for cooking, and the increased prominence of coffee as a cash crop over the past century.[55] According to a conservative estimate, about 40 percent of the island's original forest cover was lost from the 1950s to 2000, with a thinning of remaining forest areas by 80 percent.[56] In addition to traditional agricultural practice, wildlife conservation is challenged by the illicit harvesting of protected forests, as well as the state-sanctioned harvesting of precious woods within national parks. Although banned by then-President Marc Ravalomanana from 2000 to 2009, the collection of small quantities of precious timber from national parks was re-authorized in January 2009 and dramatically intensified under the administration of Andry Rajoelina as a key source of state revenues to offset cuts in donor support following Ravalomanana's ousting.[57]

It is anticipated that all the island's rainforests, excluding those in protected areas and the steepest eastern mountain slopes, will have been deforested by 2025.[58] Invasive species have likewise been introduced by human populations. Following the 2014 discovery in Madagascar of the Asian common toad, a relative of a toad species that has severely harmed wildlife in Australia since the 1930s, researchers warned the toad could "wreak havoc on the country's unique fauna."[59] Habitat destruction and hunting have threatened many of Madagascar's endemic species or driven them to extinction. The island's elephant birds, a family of endemic giant ratites, became extinct in the 17th century or earlier, most probably due to human hunting of adult birds and poaching of their large eggs for food.[60] Numerous giant lemur species vanished with the arrival of human settlers to the island, while others became extinct over the course of the centuries as a growing human population put greater pressures on lemur habitats and, among some populations, increased the rate of lemur hunting for food.[61] A July 2012 assessment found that the exploitation of natural resources since 2009 has had dire consequences for the island's wildlife: 90 percent of lemur species were found to be threatened with extinction, the highest proportion of any mammalian group. Of these, 23 species were classified as critically endangered. By contrast, a previous study in 2008 had found only 38 percent of lemur species were at risk of extinction.[45]

In 2003 Ravalomanana announced the Durban Vision, an initiative to more than triple the island's protected natural areas to over 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) or 10 percent of Madagascar's land surface. As of 2011[update], areas protected by the state included five Strict Nature Reserves (Réserves Naturelles Intégrales), 21 Wildlife Reserves (Réserves Spéciales) and 21 National Parks (Parcs Nationaux).[62] In 2007 six of the national parks were declared a joint World Heritage Site under the name Rainforests of the Atsinanana. These parks are Marojejy, Masoala, Ranomafana, Zahamena, Andohahela and Andringitra.[63] Local timber merchants are harvesting scarce species of rosewood trees from protected rainforests within Marojejy National Park and exporting the wood to China for the production of luxury furniture and musical instruments.[64] To raise public awareness of Madagascar's environmental challenges, the Wildlife Conservation Society opened an exhibit entitled "Madagascar!" in June 2008 at the Bronx Zoo in New York.[65]

The settlement of Madagascar is a subject of ongoing research and debate. Archaeological finds such as cut marks on bones found in the northwest and stone tools in the northeast indicate that Madagascar was visited by foragers around 2000 BC.[66][67] Traditionally, archaeologists have estimated that the earliest settlers arrived in successive waves throughout the period between 350 BC and 550 AD, while others are cautious about dates earlier than 250 AD. In either case, these dates make Madagascar one of the last major landmasses on Earth to be settled by humans.[68]

Early settlers arrived in outrigger canoes from southern Borneo. Upon arrival, early settlers practiced slash-and-burn agriculture to clear the coastal rainforests for cultivation. The first settlers encountered Madagascar's abundance of megafauna, including giant lemurs, elephant birds, giant fossa and the Malagasy hippopotamus, which have since become extinct due to hunting and habitat destruction.[69] By 600 AD groups of these early settlers had begun clearing the forests of the central highlands.[70]Arab traders first reached the island between the seventh and ninth centuries.[71] A wave of Bantu-speaking migrants from southeastern Africa arrived around 1000 AD. They introduced the zebu, a type of long-horned humped cattle, which they kept in large herds.[52]

By 1600, irrigated paddy fields were developed in the central highland Betsileo Kingdom, and were extended with terraced paddies throughout the neighboring Kingdom of Imerina a century later.[70] The rising intensity of land cultivation and the ever-increasing demand for zebu pasturage had largely transformed the central highlands from a forest ecosystem to grassland by the 17th century.[52] The oral histories of the Merina people, who may have arrived in the central highlands between 600 and 1000 years ago, describe encountering an established population they called the Vazimba. Probably the descendants of an earlier and less technologically advanced Austronesian settlement wave, the Vazimba were assimilated or expelled from the highlands by the Merina kings Andriamanelo, Ralambo and Andrianjaka in the 16th and early 17th centuries.[72] Today, the spirits of the Vazimba are revered as tompontany (ancestral masters of the land) by many traditional Malagasy communities.[73]

Madagascar was an important transoceanic trading hub connecting ports of the Indian Ocean in the early centuries following human settlement. The written history of Madagascar began with the Arabs, who established trading posts along the northwest coast by at least the 10th century and introduced Islam, the Arabic script (used to transcribe the Malagasy language in a form of writing known as sorabe), Arab astrology, and other cultural elements.[20] European contact began in 1500, when the Portuguese sea captain Diogo Dias sighted the island.[14] The French established trading posts along the east coast in the late 17th century.[20]

From about 1774 to 1824, Madagascar gained prominence among pirates and European traders, particularly those involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The small island of Nosy Boroha off the northeastern coast of Madagascar has been proposed by some historians as the site of the legendary pirate utopia of Libertalia.[74] Many European sailors were shipwrecked on the coasts of the island, among them Robert Drury, whose journal is one of the few written depictions of life in southern Madagascar during the 18th century.[75] The wealth generated by maritime trade spurred the rise of organized kingdoms on the island, some of which had grown quite powerful by the 17th century.[76] Among these were the Betsimisaraka alliance of the eastern coast and the Sakalava chiefdoms of Menabe and Boina on the west coast. The Kingdom of Imerina, located in the central highlands with its capital at the royal palace of Antananarivo, emerged at around the same time under the leadership of King Andriamanelo.[77]

Upon its emergence in the early 17th century, the highland kingdom of Imerina was initially a minor power relative to the larger coastal kingdoms[77] and grew even weaker in the early 18th century when King Andriamasinavalona divided it among his four sons. Following almost a century of warring and famine, Imerina was reunited in 1793 by King Andrianampoinimerina (1787–1810).[78] From his initial capital Ambohimanga,[79] and later from the Rova of Antananarivo, this Merina king rapidly expanded his rule over neighboring principalities. His ambition to bring the entire island under his control was largely achieved by his son and successor, King Radama I (1810–28), who was recognized by the British government as King of Madagascar. Radama concluded a treaty in 1817 with the British governor of Mauritius to abolish the lucrative slave trade in return for British military and financial assistance. Artisan missionary envoys from the London Missionary Society began arriving in 1818 and included such key figures as James Cameron, David Jones and David Griffiths, who established schools, transcribed the Malagasy language using the Roman alphabet, translated the Bible, and introduced a variety of new technologies to the island.[80]

Radama's successor, Queen Ranavalona I (1828–61), responded to increasing political and cultural encroachment on the part of Britain and France by issuing a royal edict prohibiting the practice of Christianity in Madagascar and pressuring most foreigners to leave the territory. She made heavy use of the traditional practice of fanompoana (forced labor as tax payment) to complete public works projects and develop a standing army of between 20,000 and 30,000 Merina soldiers, whom she deployed to pacify outlying regions of the island and further expand the Kingdom of Merina to encompass most of Madagascar. Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of tangena was routinely obligatory. Between 1828 and 1861, the tangena ordeal caused about 3,000 deaths annually. In 1838, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 people in Imerina died as a result of the tangena ordeal, constituting roughly 20 percent of the population.[81] The combination of regular warfare, disease, difficult forced labor and harsh measures of justice resulted in a high mortality rate among soldiers and civilians alike during her 33-year reign. [82] Among those who continued to reside in Imerina were Jean Laborde, an entrepreneur who developed munitions and other industries on behalf of the monarchy, and Joseph-François Lambert, a French adventurer and slave trader, with whom then-Prince Radama II signed a controversial trade agreement termed the Lambert Charter. Succeeding his mother, Radama II (1861–63) attempted to relax the queen's stringent policies, but was overthrown two years later by Prime Minister Rainivoninahitriniony (1852–1865) and an alliance of Andriana (noble) and Hova (commoner) courtiers, who sought to end the absolute power of the monarch.[20]

Following the coup, the courtiers offered Radama's queen Rasoherina (1863–68) the opportunity to rule, if she would accept a power sharing arrangement with the Prime Minister—a new social contract that would be sealed by a political marriage between them.[83] Queen Rasoherina accepted, first wedding Rainivoninahitriniony, then later deposing him and wedding his brother, Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony (1864–95), who would go on to marry Queen Ranavalona II (1868–83) and Queen Ranavalona III (1883–97) in succession.[84] Over the course of Rainilaiarivony's 31-year tenure as prime minister, numerous policies were adopted to modernize and consolidate the power of the central government.[85] Schools were constructed throughout the island and attendance was made mandatory. Army organization was improved, and British consultants were employed to train and professionalize soldiers.[86]Polygamy was outlawed and Christianity, declared the official religion of the court in 1869, was adopted alongside traditional beliefs among a growing portion of the populace.[85] Legal codes were reformed on the basis of British common law and three European-style courts were established in the capital city.[86] In his joint role as Commander-in-Chief, Rainilaiarivony also successfully ensured the defense of Madagascar against several French colonial incursions.[86]

Primarily on the basis that the Lambert Charter had not been respected, France invaded Madagascar in 1883 in what became known as the first Franco-Hova War.[87] At the end of the war, Madagascar ceded the northern port town of Antsiranana (Diego Suarez) to France and paid 560,000 francs to Lambert's heirs.[88] In 1890, the British accepted the full formal imposition of a French protectorate on the island, but French authority was not acknowledged by the government of Madagascar. To force capitulation, the French bombarded and occupied the harbor of Toamasina on the east coast, and Mahajanga on the west coast, in December 1894 and January 1895 respectively.[89]

A French military flying column then marched toward Antananarivo, losing many men to malaria and other diseases. Reinforcements came from Algeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon reaching the city in September 1895, the column bombarded the royal palace with heavy artillery, causing heavy casualties and leading Queen Ranavalona III to surrender.[90] France annexed Madagascar in 1896 and declared the island a colony the following year, dissolving the Merina monarchy and sending the royal family into exile on Réunion Island and to Algeria. A two-year resistance movement organized in response to the French capture of the royal palace was effectively put down at the end of 1897.[91]

Under colonial rule, plantations were established for the production of a variety of export crops.[92]Slavery was abolished in 1896 and approximately 500,000 slaves were freed; many remained in their former masters' homes as servants[93] or as sharecroppers; in many parts of the island strong discriminatory views against slave descendants are still held today.[94] Wide paved boulevards and gathering places were constructed in the capital city of Antananarivo[95] and the Rova palace compound was turned into a museum.[96] Additional schools were built, particularly in rural and coastal areas where the schools of the Merina had not reached. Education became mandatory between the ages of 6 to 13 and focused primarily on French language and practical skills.[97]

The occupation of France during the Second World War tarnished the prestige of the colonial administration in Madagascar and galvanized the growing independence movement, leading to the Malagasy Uprising of 1947.[101] This movement led the French to establish reformed institutions in 1956 under the Loi Cadre (Overseas Reform Act), and Madagascar moved peacefully towards independence.[102] The Malagasy Republic was proclaimed on 14 October 1958, as an autonomous state within the French Community. A period of provisional government ended with the adoption of a constitution in 1959 and full independence on 26 June 1960.[103]

Since regaining independence, Madagascar has transitioned through four republics with corresponding revisions to its constitution. The First Republic (1960–72), under the leadership of French-appointed President Philibert Tsiranana, was characterized by a continuation of strong economic and political ties to France. Many high-level technical positions were filled by French expatriates, and French teachers, textbooks and curricula continued to be used in schools around the country. Popular resentment over Tsiranana's tolerance for this "neo-colonial" arrangement inspired a series of farmer and student protests that overturned his administration in 1972.[20]

Gabriel Ramanantsoa, a major general in the army, was appointed interim president and prime minister that same year, but low public approval forced him to step down in 1975. Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava, appointed to succeed him, was assassinated six days into his tenure. General Gilles Andriamahazo ruled after Ratsimandrava for four months before being replaced by another military appointee: Vice Admiral Didier Ratsiraka, who ushered in the socialist-Marxist Second Republic that ran under his tenure from 1975 to 1993.

This period saw a political alignment with the Eastern Bloc countries and a shift toward economic insularity. These policies, coupled with economic pressures stemming from the 1973 oil crisis, resulted in the rapid collapse of Madagascar's economy and a sharp decline in living standards,[20] and the country had become completely bankrupt by 1979. The Ratsiraka administration accepted the conditions of transparency, anti-corruption measures and free market policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and various bilateral donors in exchange for their bailout of the nation's broken economy.[104]

Ratsiraka's dwindling popularity in the late 1980s reached a critical point in 1991 when presidential guards opened fire on unarmed protesters during a rally. Within two months, a transitional government had been established under the leadership of Albert Zafy (1993–96), who went on to win the 1992 presidential elections and inaugurate the Third Republic (1992–2010).[105] The new Madagascar constitution established a multi-party democracy and a separation of powers that placed significant control in the hands of the National Assembly. The new constitution also emphasized human rights, social and political freedoms, and free trade.[20] Zafy's term, however, was marred by economic decline, allegations of corruption, and his introduction of legislation to give himself greater powers. He was consequently impeached in 1996, and an interim president, Norbert Ratsirahonana, was appointed for the three months prior to the next presidential election. Ratsiraka was then voted back into power on a platform of decentralization and economic reforms for a second term which lasted from 1996 to 2001.[104]

The contested 2001 presidential elections in which then-mayor of Antananarivo, Marc Ravalomanana, eventually emerged victorious, caused a seven-month standoff in 2002 between supporters of Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka. The negative economic impact of the political crisis was gradually overcome by Ravalomanana's progressive economic and political policies, which encouraged investments in education and ecotourism, facilitated foreign direct investment, and cultivated trading partnerships both regionally and internationally. National GDP grew at an average rate of 7 percent per year under his administration. In the later half of his second term, Ravalomanana was criticised by domestic and international observers who accused him of increasing authoritarianism and corruption.[104]

Opposition leader and then-mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, led a movement in early 2009 in which Ravalomanana was pushed from power in an unconstitutional process widely condemned as a coup d'état. In March 2009, Rajoelina was declared by the Supreme Court as the President of the High Transitional Authority, an interim governing body responsible for moving the country toward presidential elections. In 2010, a new constitution was adopted by referendum, establishing a Fourth Republic, which sustained the democratic, multi-party structure established in the previous constitution.[105]Hery Rajaonarimampianina was declared the winner of the 2013 presidential election, which the international community deemed fair and transparent.[106]

Madagascar is a semi-presidentialrepresentative democraticmulti-party republic, wherein the popularly elected president is the head of state and selects a prime minister, who recommends candidates to the president to form his cabinet of ministers. According to the constitution, executive power is exercised by the government while legislative power is vested in the ministerial cabinet, the Senate and the National Assembly, although in reality these two latter bodies have very little power or legislative role. The constitution establishes independent executive, legislative and judicial branches and mandates a popularly elected president limited to three five-year terms.[14]

The public directly elects the president and the 127 members of the National Assembly to five-year terms. All 33 members of the Senate serve six-year terms, with 22 senators elected by local officials and 11 appointed by the president. The last National Assembly election was held on 20 December 2013[14] and the last Senate election was held on 30 December 2015.[107]

At the local level, the island's 22 provinces are administered by a governor and provincial council. Provinces are further subdivided into regions and communes. The judiciary is modeled on the French system, with a High Constitutional Court, High Court of Justice, Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, criminal tribunals, and tribunals of first instance.[108] The courts, which adhere to civil law, lack the capacity to quickly and transparently try the cases in the judicial system, often forcing defendants to pass lengthy pretrial detentions in unsanitary and overcrowded prisons.[109]

Antananarivo is the administrative capital and largest city of Madagascar.[14] It is located in the highlands region, near the geographic center of the island. King Andrianjaka founded Antananarivo as the capital of his Imerina Kingdom around 1610 or 1625 upon the site of a captured Vazimba capital on the hilltop of Analamanga.[72] As Merina dominance expanded over neighboring Malagasy peoples in the early 19th century to establish the Kingdom of Madagascar, Antananarivo became the center of administration for virtually the entire island. In 1896 the French colonizers of Madagascar adopted the Merina capital as their center of colonial administration. The city remained the capital of Madagascar after regaining independence in 1960. In 2017, the capital's population was estimated at 1,391,433 inhabitants.[110] The next largest cities are Antsirabe (500,000), Toamasina (450,000) and Mahajanga (400,000).[14]

Since Madagascar gained independence from France in 1960, the island's political transitions have been marked by numerous popular protests, several disputed elections, an impeachment, two military coups and one assassination. The island's recurrent political crises are often prolonged, with detrimental effects on the local economy, international relations and Malagasy living standards. The eight-month standoff between incumbent Ratsiraka and challenger Marc Ravalomanana following the 2001 presidential elections cost Madagascar millions of dollars in lost tourism and trade revenue as well as damage to infrastructure, such as bombed bridges and buildings damaged by arson.[111]A series of protests led by Andry Rajoelina against Ravalomanana in early 2009 became violent, with more than 170 people killed.[112] Modern politics in Madagascar are colored by the history of Merina subjugation of coastal communities under their rule in the 19th century. The consequent tension between the highland and coastal populations has periodically flared up into isolated events of violence.[113]

Madagascar has historically been perceived as being on the margin of mainstream African affairs despite being a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity, which was established in 1963 and dissolved in 2002 to be replaced by the African Union. Madagascar was not permitted to attend the first African Union summit because of a dispute over the results of the 2001 presidential election, but rejoined the African Union in July 2003 after a 14-month hiatus. Madagascar was again suspended by the African Union in March 2009 following the unconstitutional transfer of executive power to Rajoelina.[114] Madagascar is a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the United States military.[14]Eleven countries have established embassies in Madagascar, including France, the United Kingdom, the United States, China and India.[115]

Human rights in Madagascar are protected under the constitution and the state is a signatory to numerous international agreements including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[116] Religious, ethnic and sexual minorities are protected under the law. Freedom of association and assembly are also guaranteed under the law, although in practice the denial of permits for public assembly has occasionally been used to impede political demonstrations.[57][116] Torture by security forces is rare and state repression is low relative to other countries with comparably few legal safeguards, although arbitrary arrests and the corruption of military and police officers remain problems. Ravalomanana's 2004 creation of BIANCO, an anti-corruption bureau, resulted in reduced corruption among Antananarivo's lower-level bureaucrats in particular, although high-level officials have not been prosecuted by the bureau.[57]

The rise of centralized kingdoms among the Sakalava, Merina and other ethnic groups produced the island's first standing armies by the 16th century, initially equipped with spears but later with muskets, cannons and other firearms.[117] By the early 19th century, the Merina sovereigns of the Kingdom of Madagascar had brought much of the island under their control by mobilizing an army of trained and armed soldiers numbering as high as 30,000.[118] French attacks on coastal towns in the later part of the century prompted then-Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony to solicit British assistance to provide training to the Merina monarchy's army. Despite the training and leadership provided by British military advisers, the Malagasy army was unable to withstand French weaponry and was forced to surrender following an attack on the royal palace at Antananarivo. Madagascar was declared a colony of France in 1897.[119]

The political independence and sovereignty of the Malagasy armed forces, which comprises an army, navy and air force, was restored with independence from France in 1960.[120] Since this time the Malagasy military has never engaged in armed conflict with another state or within its own borders, but has occasionally intervened to restore order during periods of political unrest. Under the socialist Second Republic, Admiral Didier Ratsiraka instated mandatory national armed or civil service for all young citizens regardless of gender, a policy that remained in effect from 1976 to 1991.[121][122] The armed forces are under the direction of the Minister of the Interior[108] and have remained largely neutral during times of political crisis, as during the protracted standoff between incumbent Ratsiraka and challenger Marc Ravalomanana in the disputed 2001 presidential elections, when the military refused to intervene in favor of either candidate. This tradition was broken in 2009, when a segment of the army defected to the side of Andry Rajoelina, then-mayor of Antananarivo, in support of his attempt to force President Ravalomanana from power.[57]

The Minister of the Interior is responsible for the national police force, paramilitary force (gendarmerie) and the secret police.[108] The police and gendarmerie are stationed and administered at the local level. However, in 2009 fewer than a third of all communes had access to the services of these security forces, with most lacking local-level headquarters for either corps.[123] Traditional community tribunals, called dina, are presided over by elders and other respected figures and remain a key means by which justice is served in rural areas where state presence is weak. Historically, security has been relatively high across the island.[57] Violent crime rates are low, and criminal activities are predominantly crimes of opportunity such as pickpocketing and petty theft, although child prostitution, human trafficking and the production and sale of marijuana and other illegal drugs are increasing.[108] Budget cuts since 2009 have severely impacted the national police force, producing a steep increase in criminal activity in recent years.[57]

Madagascar became a Member State of the United Nations on 20 September 1960, shortly after gaining its independence on 26 June 1960.[126] As of January 2017, 34 police officers from Madagascar are deployed in Haiti as part of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.[127] Starting in 2015, under the direction of and with assistance from the UN, the World Food Programme started the Madagascar Country Programme with the two main goals of long-term development/ reconstruction efforts and addressing the food insecurity issues in the southern regions of Madagascar.[128] These goals plan to be accomplished by providing meals for specific schools in rural and urban priority areas and by developing national school feeding policies to increase consistency of nourishment throughout the country. Small and local farmers have also been assisted in increasing both the quantity and quality of their production, as well as improving their crop yield in unfavorable weather conditions.[128]

Embroidered tablecloths are produced for sale to tourists at Nosy Komba.

During Madagascar's First Republic, France heavily influenced Madagascar's economic planning and policy and served as its key trading partner. Key products were cultivated and distributed nationally through producers' and consumers' cooperatives. Government initiatives such as a rural development program and state farms were established to boost production of commodities such as rice, coffee, cattle, silk and palm oil. Popular dissatisfaction over these policies was a key factor in launching the socialist-Marxist Second Republic, in which the formerly private bank and insurance industries were nationalized; state monopolies were established for such industries as textiles, cotton and power; and import–export trade and shipping were brought under state control. Madagascar's economy quickly deteriorated as exports fell, industrial production dropped by 75 percent, inflation spiked and government debt increased; the rural population was soon reduced to living at subsistence levels. Over 50 percent of the nation's export revenue was spent on debt servicing.[19]

The IMF forced Madagascar's government to accept structural adjustment policies and liberalization of the economy when the state became bankrupt in 1982 and state-controlled industries were gradually privatized over the course of the 1980s. The political crisis of 1991 led to the suspension of IMF and World Bank assistance. Conditions for the resumption of aid were not met under Zafy, who tried unsuccessfully to attract other forms of revenue for the State before aid was once again resumed under the interim government established upon Zafy's impeachment. The IMF agreed to write off half Madagascar's debt in 2004 under the Ravalomanana administration. Having met a set of stringent economic, governance and human rights criteria, Madagascar became the first country to benefit from the Millennium Challenge Account in 2005.[14]

Madagascar's GDP in 2015 was estimated at 9.98 billion USD, with a per capita GDP of $411.82.[129][130] Approximately 69 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line threshold of one dollar per day.[131] Over the last five years, the average growth rate has been 2.6% but is expected to have reached 4.1% in 2016, due to public works programs and a growth of the service sector.[132] The agriculture sector constituted 29 percent of Malagasy GDP in 2011, while manufacturing formed 15 percent of GDP. Madagascar's other sources of growth are tourism, agriculture and the extractive industries.[133] Tourism focuses on the niche eco-tourism market, capitalizing on Madagascar's unique biodiversity, unspoiled natural habitats, national parks and lemur species.[134] An estimated 365,000 tourists visited Madagascar in 2008, but the sector declined during the political crisis with 180,000 tourists visiting in 2010.[133] However, the sector has been growing steadily for a few years; In 2016, 293,000 tourists landed in the African island with an increase of 20% compared to 2015; For 2017 the country has the goal of reaching 366,000 visitors, while for 2018 government estimates are expected to reach 500,000 annual tourists.[135]

Madagascar's natural resources include a variety of unprocessed agricultural and mineral resources. Agriculture (including raffia), fishing and forestry are mainstays of the economy. Madagascar is the world's principal supplier of vanilla, cloves[137] and ylang-ylang.[21] Other key agricultural resources include coffee, lychees and shrimp. Key mineral resources include various types of precious and semi-precious stones, and Madagascar currently provides half of the world's supply of sapphires, which were discovered near Ilakaka in the late 1990s.[138]

Madagascar has one of the world's largest reserves of ilmenite (titanium ore), as well as important reserves of chromite, coal, iron, cobalt, copper and nickel.[19] Several major projects are underway in the mining, oil and gas sectors that are anticipated to give a significant boost to the Malagasy economy. These include such projects as ilmenite and zircon mining from heavy mineral sands near Tôlanaro by Rio Tinto,[139] extraction of nickel near Moramanga and its processing near Toamasina by Sherritt International,[140] and the development of the giant onshore heavy oil deposits at Tsimiroro and Bemolanga by Madagascar Oil.[141]

Exports formed 28 percent of GDP in 2009.[14] Most of the country's export revenue is derived from the textiles industry, fish and shellfish, vanilla, cloves and other foodstuffs.[133] France is Madagascar's main trading partner, although the United States, Japan and Germany also have strong economic ties to the country.[19] The Madagascar-U.S. Business Council was formed in May 2003, as a collaboration between USAID and Malagasy artisan producers to support the export of local handicrafts to foreign markets.[142] Imports of such items as foodstuffs, fuel, capital goods, vehicles, consumer goods and electronics consume an estimated 52 percent of GDP. The main sources of Madagascar's imports include China, France, Iran, Mauritius and Hong Kong.[14]

In 2010, Madagascar had approximately 7,617 km (4,730 mi) of paved roads, 854 km (530 mi) of railways and 432 km (270 mi) of navigable waterways.[9] The majority of roads in Madagascar are unpaved, with many becoming impassable in the rainy season. Largely paved national routes connect the six largest regional towns to Antananarivo, with minor paved and unpaved routes providing access to other population centers in each district.[20]

There are several rail lines. Antananarivo is connected to Toamasina, Ambatondrazaka and Antsirabe by rail, and another rail line connects Fianarantsoa to Manakara. The most important seaport in Madagascar is located on the east coast at Toamasina. Ports at Mahajanga and Antsiranana are significantly less used due to their remoteness.[20] The island's newest port at Ehoala, constructed in 2008 and privately managed by Rio Tinto, will come under state control upon completion of the company's mining project near Tôlanaro around 2038.[139] Air Madagascar services the island's many small regional airports, which offer the only practical means of access to many of the more remote regions during rainy season road washouts.[20]

Running water and electricity are supplied at the national level by a government service provider, Jirama, which is unable to service the entire population. As of 2009[update], only 6.8 percent of Madagascar's fokontany had access to water provided by Jirama, while 9.5 percent had access to its electricity services.[123] 56% of Madagascar's power is provided by hydroelectric power plants with the remaining 44% provided by diesel engine generators.[143] Mobile telephone and internet access are widespread in urban areas but remain limited in rural parts of the island. Approximately 30 percent of the districts are able to access the nations' several private telecommunications networks via mobile telephones or land lines.[123]

Radio broadcasts remain the principal means by which the Malagasy population access international, national and local news. Only state radio broadcasts are transmitted across the entire island. Hundreds of public and private stations with local or regional range provide alternatives to state broadcasting.[109] In addition to the state television channel, a variety of privately owned television stations broadcast local and international programming throughout Madagascar. Several media outlets are owned by political partisans or politicians themselves, including the media groups MBS (owned by Ravalomanana) and Viva (owned by Rajoelina),[57] contributing to political polarization in reporting.

The media has historically come under varying degrees of pressure over time to censor their criticism of the government. Reporters are occasionally threatened or harassed and media outlets are periodically forced to close.[109] Accusations of media censorship have increased since 2009 due to the alleged intensification of restrictions on political criticism.[116] Access to the internet has grown dramatically over the past decade, with an estimated 352,000 residents of Madagascar accessing the internet from home or in one of the nation's many internet cafés in December 2011.[109]

Maternal mortality declined after 1990 but rose sharply after 2009 due to political instability.[123]

Medical centers, dispensaries and hospitals are found throughout the island, although they are concentrated in urban areas and particularly in Antananarivo. Access to medical care remains beyond the reach of many Malagasy, especially in the rural areas, and many recourse to traditional healers.[144] In addition to the high expense of medical care relative to the average Malagasy income, the prevalence of trained medical professionals remains extremely low. In 2010 Madagascar had an average of three hospital beds per 10,000 people and a total of 3,150 doctors, 5,661 nurses, 385 community health workers, 175 pharmacists and 57 dentists for a population of 22 million. 14.6 percent of government spending in 2008 was directed toward the health sector. Approximately 70 percent of spending on health was contributed by the government, while 30 percent originated with international donors and other private sources.[145] The government provides at least one basic health center per commune. Private health centers are concentrated within urban areas and particularly those of the central highlands.[123]

Despite these barriers to access, health services have shown a trend toward improvement over the past twenty years. Child immunizations against such diseases as hepatitis B, diphtheria and measles increased an average of 60 percent in this period, indicating low but increasing availability of basic medical services and treatments. The Malagasy fertility rate in 2009 was 4.6 children per woman, declining from 6.3 in 1990. Teen pregnancy rates of 14.8 percent in 2011, much higher than the African average, are a contributing factor to rapid population growth.[145] In 2010 the maternal mortality rate was 440 per 100,000 births, compared to 373.1 in 2008 and 484.4 in 1990, indicating a decline in perinatal care following the 2009 coup. The infant mortality rate in 2011 was 41 per 1,000 births,[14] with an under-five mortality rate at 61 per 1,000 births.[146]Schistosomiasis, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases are common in Madagascar, although infection rates of AIDS remain low relative to many countries in mainland Africa, at only 0.2 percent of the adult population. The malaria mortality rate is also among the lowest in Africa at 8.5 deaths per 100,000 people, in part due to the highest frequency use of insecticide treated nets in Africa.[145] Adult life expectancy in 2009 was 63 years for men and 67 years for women.[145]

Prior to the 19th century, all education in Madagascar was informal and typically served to teach practical skills as well as social and cultural values, including respect for ancestors and elders.[20] The first formal European-style school was established in 1818 at Toamasina by members of the London Missionary Society (LMS). The LMS was invited by King Radama I (1810–28) to expand its schools throughout Imerina to teach basic literacy and numeracy to aristocratic children. The schools were closed by Ranavalona I in 1835[148] but reopened and expanded in the decades after her death.

By the end of the 19th century Madagascar had the most developed and modern school system in pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa. Access to schooling was expanded in coastal areas during the colonial period, with French language and basic work skills becoming the focus of the curriculum. During the post-colonial First Republic, a continued reliance on French nationals as teachers, and French as the language of instruction, displeased those desiring a complete separation from the former colonial power.[20]

Consequently, under the socialist Second Republic, French instructors and other nationals were expelled, Malagasy was declared the language of instruction and a large cadre of young Malagasy were rapidly trained to teach at remote rural schools under the mandatory two-year national service policy.[149]

This policy, known as malgachization, coincided with a severe economic downturn and a dramatic decline in the quality of education. Those schooled during this period generally failed to master the French language or many other subjects and struggled to find employment, forcing many to take low-paying jobs in the informal or black market that mired them in deepening poverty. Excepting the brief presidency of Albert Zafy, from 1992 to 1996, Ratsiraka remained in power from 1975 to 2001 and failed to achieve significant improvements in education throughout his tenure.[150]

Education was prioritized under the Ravalomanana administration (2002–09), and is currently free and compulsory from ages 6 to 13.[151] The primary schooling cycle is five years, followed by four years at the lower secondary level and three years at the upper secondary level.[20] During Ravalomanana's first term, thousands of new primary schools and additional classrooms were constructed, older buildings were renovated, and tens of thousands of new primary teachers were recruited and trained. Primary school fees were eliminated and kits containing basic school supplies were distributed to primary students.[151]

Government school construction initiatives have ensured at least one primary school per fokontany and one lower secondary school within each commune. At least one upper secondary school is located in each of the larger urban centers.[123] The three branches of the national public university are located at Antananarivo (founded in 1961), Mahajanga (1977) and Fianarantsoa (1988). These are complemented by public teacher-training colleges and several private universities and technical colleges.[20]

As a result of increased educational access, enrollment rates more than doubled between 1996 and 2006. However, education quality is weak, producing high rates of grade repetition and dropout.[151] Education policy in Ravalomanana's second term focused on quality issues, including an increase in minimum education standards for the recruitment of primary teachers from a middle school leaving certificate (BEPC) to a high school leaving certificate (BAC), and a reformed teacher training program to support the transition from traditional didactic instruction to student-centered teaching methods to boost student learning and participation in the classroom.[152] Public expenditure on education was 13.4 percent of total government expenditure and 2.9 percent of GDP in 2008. Primary classrooms are crowded, with average pupil to teacher ratios of 47:1 in 2008.[153]

In 2016, the population of Madagascar was estimated at 25 million, up from 2.2 million in 1900.[5][20] The annual population growth rate in Madagascar was approximately 2.9 percent in 2009.[14]

Approximately 42.5 percent of the population is younger than 15 years of age, while 54.5 percent are between the ages of 15 and 64. Those aged 65 and older form three percent of the total population.[133] Only two general censuses, in 1975 and 1993, have been carried out after independence. The most densely populated regions of the island are the eastern highlands and the eastern coast, contrasting most dramatically with the sparsely populated western plains.[20]

The Malagasy ethnic group forms over 90 percent of Madagascar's population and is typically divided into eighteen ethnic subgroups.[14] Recent DNA research revealed that the genetic makeup of the average Malagasy person constitutes an approximately equal blend of Southeast Asian and East African genes,[154][155] although the genetics of some communities show a predominance of Southeast Asian or East African origins or some Arab, Indian or European ancestry.[156]

Southeast Asian features – specifically from the southern part of Borneo – are most predominant among the Merina of the central highlands,[113] who form the largest Malagasy ethnic subgroup at approximately 26 percent of the population, while certain communities among the coastal peoples (collectively called côtiers) have relatively stronger East African features. The largest coastal ethnic subgroups are the Betsimisaraka (14.9 percent) and the Tsimihety and Sakalava (6 percent each).[20]

Chinese, Indian and Comorian minorities are present in Madagascar, as well as a small European (primarily French) populace. Emigration in the late 20th century has reduced these minority populations, occasionally in abrupt waves, such as the exodus of Comorans in 1976, following anti-Comoran riots in Mahajanga.[20] By comparison, there has been no significant emigration of Malagasy peoples.[19] The number of Europeans has declined since independence, reduced from 68,430 in 1958[102] to 17,000 three decades later. There were an estimated 25,000 Comorans, 18,000 Indians, and 9,000 Chinese living in Madagascar in the mid-1980s.[20]

The Malagasy language is of Malayo-Polynesian origin and is generally spoken throughout the island. The numerous dialects of Malagasy, which are generally mutually intelligible,[157] can be clustered under one of two subgroups: eastern Malagasy, spoken along the eastern forests and highlands including the Merina dialect of Antananarivo and western Malagasy, spoken across the western coastal plains. French became the official language during the colonial period, when Madagascar came under the authority of France. In the first national Constitution of 1958, Malagasy and French were named the official languages of the Malagasy Republic. Madagascar is a francophone country, and French is mostly spoken as a second language among the educated population and used for international communication.[20]

No official languages were recorded in the Constitution of 1992, although Malagasy was identified as the national language. Nonetheless, many sources still claimed that Malagasy and French were official languages, eventually leading a citizen to initiate a legal case against the state in April 2000, on the grounds that the publication of official documents only in the French language was unconstitutional. The High Constitutional Court observed in its decision that, in the absence of a language law, French still had the character of an official language.[158]

In the Constitution of 2007, Malagasy remained the national language while official languages were reintroduced: Malagasy, French, and English.[159] English was removed as an official language from the constitution approved by voters in the November 2010 referendum.[1] The outcome of the referendum, and its consequences for official and national language policy, are not recognized by the political opposition, who cite lack of transparency and inclusiveness in the way the election was organized by the High Transitional Authority.[105]

Language Policy

Over the years, Madagascar has had different language policies under different influences of authority. The indigenous language of Madagascar, Malagasy, was the predominant language on the island until the French colonization in 1897. Malagasy has developed throughout the decades from an oral language to a language that has a written system (Latin orthography), a change that was enforced by King Radama I, in 1823. Following the French colonization, the language of instruction and media changed from Malagasy to almost exclusively French. Moreover, the first French governor-general, Gallieni, also encouraged the French officials to learn Malagasy as well. After the advent of the Malagasy independence, the Madagascans tried to reinstate Malagasy as a language of instruction especially in secondary schools. However, the language policy was inadequately planned and Malagasy was struggling to surpass French as the language of instruction.[160] Today, Madagascar has two official languages: Malagasy and French. Madagascar managed to maintain the indigenous language, Malagasy, in society and in schools despite the colonizing power. Malagasy and French are both the language of instruction in primary and secondary schools in Madagascar. The inclusion of the African language as a medium of instruction is usually uncommon in other colonized African countries.[161]

According to the US Department of State in 2011, 41% of Madagascans practice Christianity and 52% practice traditional religion,[14] which tends to emphasize links between the living and the razana (ancestors). But according to the Pew Research Center in 2010, only 4.5% of Madagascans practice folk religions and 85% are Christian, with practitioners of Protestantism outnumbering adherents to Roman Catholicism.[162]

The veneration of ancestors has led to the widespread tradition of tomb building, as well as the highlands practice of the famadihana, whereby a deceased family member's remains are exhumed and re-wrapped in fresh silk shrouds, before being replaced in the tomb. The famadihana is an occasion to celebrate the beloved ancestor's memory, reunite with family and community, and enjoy a festive atmosphere. Residents of surrounding villages are often invited to attend the party, where food and rum are typically served and a hiragasy troupe or other musical entertainment is commonly present.[163] Consideration for ancestors is also demonstrated through adherence to fady, taboos that are respected during and after the lifetime of the person who establishes them. It is widely believed that by showing respect for ancestors in these ways, they may intervene on behalf of the living. Conversely, misfortunes are often attributed to ancestors whose memory or wishes have been neglected. The sacrifice of zebu is a traditional method used to appease or honor the ancestors. In addition, the Malagasy traditionally believe in a creator god, called Zanahary or Andriamanitra.[164]

In 1818, the London Missionary Society sent the first Christian missionaries to the island, where they built churches, translated the Bible into the Malagasy language and began to gain converts. Beginning in 1835, Queen Ranavalona I persecuted these converts as part of an attempt to halt European cultural and political influence on the island. In 1869, a successor, Queen Ranavalona II, converted the court to Christianity and encouraged Christian missionary activity, burning the sampy (royal idols) in a symbolic break with traditional beliefs.[165] Today, many Christians integrate their religious beliefs with traditional ones related to honoring the ancestors. For instance, they may bless their dead at church before proceeding with traditional burial rites or invite a Christian minister to consecrate a famadihana reburial.[163] The Malagasy Council of Churches comprises the four oldest and most prominent Christian denominations of Madagascar (Roman Catholic, Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar, Lutheran, and Anglican) and has been an influential force in Malagasy politics.[166]

Islam is also practiced on the island. Islam was first brought to Madagascar in the Middle Ages by Arab and SomaliMuslim traders, who established several Islamic schools along the eastern coast. While the use of Arabic script and loan words and the adoption of Islamic astrology would spread across the island, the Islamic religion failed to take hold in all but a handful of southeastern coastal communities. Today, Muslims constitute 7–3 percent of the population of Madagascar and are largely concentrated in the northwestern provinces of Mahajanga and Antsiranana. The vast majority of Muslims are Sunni. Muslims are divided between those of Malagasy ethnicity, Indians, Pakistanis and Comorians. More recently, Hinduism was introduced to Madagascar through Gujarati people immigrating from the Saurashtra region of India in the late 19th century. Most Hindus in Madagascar speak Gujarati or Hindi at home.[167]

Each of the many ethnic subgroups in Madagascar adhere to their own set of beliefs, practices and ways of life that have historically contributed to their unique identities. However, there are a number of core cultural features that are common throughout the island, creating a strongly unified Malagasy cultural identity. In addition to a common language and shared traditional religious beliefs around a creator god and veneration of the ancestors, the traditional Malagasy worldview is shaped by values that emphasize fihavanana (solidarity), vintana (destiny), tody (karma), and hasina, a sacred life force that traditional communities believe imbues and thereby legitimates authority figures within the community or family. Other cultural elements commonly found throughout the island include the practice of male circumcision; strong kinship ties; a widespread belief in the power of magic, diviners, astrology and witch doctors; and a traditional division of social classes into nobles, commoners, and slaves.[20][164]

Although social castes are no longer legally recognized, ancestral caste affiliation often continues to affect social status, economic opportunity and roles within the community.[168] Malagasy people traditionally consult Mpanandro ("Makers of the Days") to identify the most auspicious days for important events such as weddings or famadihana, according to a traditional astrological system introduced by Arabs. Similarly, the nobles of many Malagasy communities in the pre-colonial period would commonly employ advisers known as the ombiasy (from olona-be-hasina, "man of much virtue") of the southeastern Antemoro ethnic group, who trace their ancestry back to early Arab settlers.[169]

The diverse origins of Malagasy culture are evident in its tangible expressions. The most emblematic instrument of Madagascar, the valiha, is a bamboo tube zither carried to Madagascar by early settlers from southern Borneo, and is very similar in form to those found in Indonesia and the Philippines today.[170] Traditional houses in Madagascar are likewise similar to those of southern Borneo in terms of symbolism and construction, featuring a rectangular layout with a peaked roof and central support pillar.[171] Reflecting a widespread veneration of the ancestors, tombs are culturally significant in many regions and tend to be built of more durable material, typically stone, and display more elaborate decoration than the houses of the living.[172] The production and weaving of silk can be traced back to the island's earliest settlers, and Madagascar's national dress, the woven lamba, has evolved into a varied and refined art.[173]

The Southeast Asian cultural influence is also evident in Malagasy cuisine, in which rice is consumed at every meal, typically accompanied by one of a variety of flavorful vegetable or meat dishes.[174] African influence is reflected in the sacred importance of zebu cattle and their embodiment of their owner's wealth, traditions originating on the African mainland. Cattle rustling, originally a rite of passage for young men in the plains areas of Madagascar where the largest herds of cattle are kept, has become a dangerous and sometimes deadly criminal enterprise as herdsmen in the southwest attempt to defend their cattle with traditional spears against increasingly armed professional rustlers.[70]

A wide variety of oral and written literature has developed in Madagascar. One of the island's foremost artistic traditions is its oratory, as expressed in the forms of hainteny (poetry), kabary (public discourse) and ohabolana (proverbs).[175][176] An epic poem exemplifying these traditions, the Ibonia, has been handed down over the centuries in several different forms across the island, and offers insight into the diverse mythologies and beliefs of traditional Malagasy communities.[177] This tradition was continued in the 20th century by such artists as Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, who is considered Africa's first modern poet,[178] and Elie Rajaonarison, an exemplar of the new wave of Malagasy poetry.[179] Madagascar has also developed a rich musical heritage, embodied in dozens of regional musical genres such as the coastal salegy or highland hiragasy that enliven village gatherings, local dance floors and national airwaves.[180] Additionally, Madagascar also has a growing culture of classical music fostered through youth academies, organizations and orchestras that promote youth involvement in classical music.

The plastic arts are also widespread throughout the island. In addition to the tradition of silk weaving and lamba production, the weaving of raffia and other local plant materials has been used to create a wide array of practical items such as floor mats, baskets, purses and hats.[142] Wood carving is a highly developed art form, with distinct regional styles evident in the decoration of balcony railings and other architectural elements. Sculptors create a variety of furniture and household goods, aloalo funerary posts, and wooden sculptures, many of which are produced for the tourist market.[181] The decorative and functional woodworking traditions of the Zafimaniry people of the central highlands was inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.[182]

Among the Antaimoro people, the production of paper embedded with flowers and other decorative natural materials is a long-established tradition that the community has begun to market to eco-tourists.[181]Embroidery and drawn thread work are done by hand to produce clothing, as well as tablecloths and other home textiles for sale in local crafts markets.[142] A small but growing number of fine art galleries in Antananarivo, and several other urban areas, offer paintings by local artists, and annual art events, such as the Hosotra open-air exhibition in the capital, contribute to the continuing development of fine arts in Madagascar.[183]

A number of traditional pastimes have emerged in Madagascar. Moraingy, a type of hand-to-hand combat, is a popular spectator sport in coastal regions. It is traditionally practiced by men, but women have recently begun to participate.[184] The wrestling of zebu cattle, which is named savika or tolon-omby, is also practiced in many regions.[185] In addition to sports, a wide variety of games are played. Among the most emblematic is fanorona, a board game widespread throughout the Highland regions. According to folk legend, the succession of King Andrianjaka after his father Ralambo was partially due to the obsession that Andrianjaka's older brother may have had with playing fanorona to the detriment of his other responsibilities.[186]

Western recreational activities were introduced to Madagascar over the past two centuries. Rugby union is considered the national sport of Madagascar.[187]Soccer is also popular. Madagascar has produced a world champion in pétanque, a French game similar to lawn bowling, which is widely played in urban areas and throughout the Highlands.[188] School athletics programs typically include soccer, track and field, judo, boxing, women's basketball and women's tennis. Madagascar sent its first competitors to the Olympic Games in 1964 and has also competed in the African Games.[19]Scouting is represented in Madagascar by its own local federation of three scouting clubs. Membership in 2011 was estimated at 14,905.[189]

Malagasy cuisine reflects the diverse influences of Southeast Asian, African, Indian, Chinese and European culinary traditions. The complexity of Malagasy meals can range from the simple, traditional preparations introduced by the earliest settlers, to the refined festival dishes prepared for the island's 19th-century monarchs. Throughout almost the entire island, the contemporary cuisine of Madagascar typically consists of a base of rice (vary) served with an accompaniment (laoka). The many varieties of laoka may be vegetarian or include animal proteins, and typically feature a sauce flavored with such ingredients as ginger, onion, garlic, tomato, vanilla, coconut milk, salt, curry powder, green peppercorns or, less commonly, other spices or herbs. In parts of the arid south and west, pastoral families may replace rice with maize, cassava, or curds made from fermented zebu milk. A wide variety of sweet and savory fritters as well as other street foods are available across the island, as are diverse tropical and temperate-climate fruits. Locally produced beverages include fruit juices, coffee, herbal teas and teas, and alcoholic drinks such as rum, wine, and beer.[174]Three Horses Beer is the most popular beer on the island[195] and is considered emblematic of Madagascar.[196] The island also produces some of the world's finest chocolate; Chocolaterie Robert, established in 1940, is the most famous chocolate company on the island.[197]

1.
Madagascar (2005 film)
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Madagascar is a 2005 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released to theaters on May 27,2005. The film tells the story of four animals from the Central Park Zoo who unexpectedly find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar. It features the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith, with Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, despite its mixed critical reception, it was a success at the box office. The film launched a franchise with a series of films, including the sequel Madagascar, Escape 2 Africa in 2008 and another film Madagascar 3, a spin-off featuring the series penguin characters, Penguins of Madagascar, was released on November 26,2014. At the Central Park Zoo, Marty the zebra is celebrating his tenth birthday, martys best friend is Alex the lion, who enjoys showing off for the public and his celebrity status as the king of New York. Alex attempts to cheer Marty up, but Marty, still unsatisfied, gets some tips from the zoos penguins—Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private—who are trying to escape the zoo, and follows them out. Alex, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippopotamus pursue Marty in an attempt to convince him to return, the zoo, under pressure from anti-captivity activists, is forced to ship the escaped animals by sea to a Kenyan wildlife preserve. During their travels, the escape from their enclosure and take over the ship. Their antics on the cause the crates containing Alex, Marty, Melman. The animals are able to regroup, initially believing themselves to be at the San Diego Zoo. Upon exploring, however, they come across a pack of lemurs, led by King Julien XIII, Alex blames Marty for their predicament and attempts to signal for help to get back to civilization. Marty, on the hand, finds the wild to be exactly what he was looking for, with Gloria. Alex eventually comes around, but, being separated from the raw steaks he was provided at the zoo, the group is accepted by the lemurs, though King Juliens adviser, Maurice, cautions them about Alexs predatory nature. King Julien ignores Maurices concerns and persuades the group to help the lemurs fend off the fossa, while Alex initially scares the fossa away and is worshiped by the lemurs, later, compelled by hunger, he attacks Marty. Realizing that Alex is now a threat, King Julien banishes him to the far side of the island where the fossa live. Seeing what has happened to Alex, and how how difficult it is to survive with so many predators around the island, the penguins, having been to Antarctica and found that it sucks, land the ship at Madagascar. Seeing this as a chance to return Alex to New York, Marty attempts to convince the now grizzled, starving Alex to return, but Alex refuses out of fear of attacking Marty again. The penguins, Gloria, and Melman go to find Marty, at the last minute, Alex overcomes his predatory instincts and scares the fossa away from the lemur territory forever

2.
Malagasy language
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Malagasy is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere, the Malagasy language is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Its distinctiveness from nearby African languages was noted in 1708 by the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland and it is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and more closely to the East Barito languages spoken in Borneo except for its Polynesian morphophonemics. According to Roger Blench, the earliest form of language spoken on Madagascar could have had some non-Austronesian substrata, Madagascar was first settled by Austronesian peoples from Maritime Southeast Asia who had passed through Borneo. 1000, the original Austronesian settlers mixed with Bantus and Arabs, there is evidence that the predecessor of the Malagasy dialects first arrived in the southern stretch of the east coast of Madagascar. Malagasy has a tradition of arts and poetic histories and legends. The most well-known is the epic, Ibonia, about a Malagasy folk hero of the same name. The Malagasy language is the language spoken on the island of Madagascar. It is also spoken by Malagasy communities on neighboring Indian Ocean islands such as Réunion, large expatriate Malagasy communities speaking the language also exist in France, Québec, and to a lesser extent Belgium and Washington DC. The Merina dialect of Malagasy is considered the language of Madagascar. It is one of two official languages alongside French in the 2010 constitution putting in place the Fourth Republic, previously, under the 2007 constitution, Malagasy was one of three official languages alongside French and English. Ethnologue encodes a dozen varieties of Malagasy as distinct languages and they have about a 70% similarity in lexicon with Merina dialect. The two main dialects of Malagasy are easily distinguished by several phonological features, the language has a written literature going back presumably to the 15th century. When the French established Fort-Dauphin in the 17th century, they found an Arabico-Malagasy script in use and this Arabic Ajami script was mainly used for astrological and magical texts. The first bilingual renderings of religious texts are those by Étienne de Flacourt, who also published the first dictionary of the language. The Malagasy alphabet consists of 21 letters, a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, v, y, z. The orthography maps rather straightforwardly to the phonemic inventory, the letters i and y both represent the /i/ sound, while o is pronounced /u/. The affricates /ʈʂ/ and /ɖʐ/ are written tr and dr, respectively, while /ts/ and /dz/ are written ts, the letter h is often silent

3.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth

4.
Flag of Madagascar
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The flag of Madagascar was adopted on 14 October 1958, two years before the independence of that nation, as Madagascar prepared for a referendum on its status in the French Community. The colors of the flag represent Madagascars history, yearning for independence, red and white were the colors of the Merina kingdom, which succumbed to France in 1896. They were used in the flag of the last Merina monarch and they may indicate the ethnic origins of the Malagasy people in Southeast Asia, and are shared by the flag of Indonesia. Green was the color of the Hova, the largest class of peasant commoners, who played a significant role in anti-French agitation, seal of Madagascar Madagascar at Flags of the World Madagascar flag at Flagscorner

5.
Seal of Madagascar
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The seal of Madagascar includes an outline map of the island at the center, and below it the head of a Zebu. Colors used include red, green, yellow, black, green and red rays emanate from the States map, making it look like the Sun and also the Ravenala, a plant typical of Madagascar. Various versions of the Constitution Article 4 have used other mottos, FOTW page about Madagascars coat of arms National Arms and Emblems Past and Present Annex of the constitution COA of the Kingdom of Merina

6.
Africa
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Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earths total surface area and 20.4 % of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the human population. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos and it contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states, nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. Africas population is the youngest amongst all the continents, the age in 2012 was 19.7. Algeria is Africas largest country by area, and Nigeria by population, afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago. Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas, it is the continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Africa hosts a diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages. In the late 19th century European countries colonized most of Africa, Africa also varies greatly with regard to environments, economics, historical ties and government systems. However, most present states in Africa originate from a process of decolonization in the 20th century, afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of Africa, which in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean. This name seems to have referred to a native Libyan tribe. The name is connected with Hebrew or Phoenician ʿafar dust. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province of Africa Proconsularis, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Latin suffix -ica can sometimes be used to denote a land, the later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name. According to the Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while Asia was used to refer to Anatolia, as Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge. 25,4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya, isidore of Seville in Etymologiae XIV.5.2. Suggests Africa comes from the Latin aprica, meaning sunny, massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, meaning to turn toward the opening of the Ka. The Ka is the double of every person and the opening of the Ka refers to a womb or birthplace

7.
African Union
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The African Union is a continental union consisting of all 55 countries on the African continent. It was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AUs secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, the objectives of the AU are, To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States, to accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent. To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent, to encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent, to promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance. To promote and protect human and peoples rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, to establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations. To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies, to promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples. To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the attainment of the objectives of the Union. To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in particular in science, to work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and the promotion of good health on the continent. The African Union is made up of political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, the Assembly is chaired by Idriss Déby, President of Chad. The AU also has a body, the Pan African Parliament. Its president is Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi, the AU Commission, the secretariat to the political structures, is chaired by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa. On 15 July 2012, Ms. Dlamini-Zuma won a contested vote to become the first female head of the African Union Commission. The main administrative capital of the African Union is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a new headquarters complex, the AU Conference Center and Office Complex, was inaugurated on 28 January 2012, during the 18th AU summit. The tower is 99.9 meters high to signify the date 9 September 1999, the AU covers the entire continent except for several territories held by Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. AU troops were deployed in Sudan for peacekeeping during Darfur conflict

8.
Antananarivo
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Antananarivo, then temporarily French Tananarive, also known by its French colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The larger urban area surrounding the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra, is the capital of Analamanga region. The city is located 1,280 m above the sea level in the center of the island, all 18 Malagasy ethnic groups, as well as residents of Chinese, Indian, European and other origins, are well represented in the city. Antananarivo is the political, economic, educational and cultural heart of Madagascar, the Presidency, National Assembly, Senate and Supreme Court are located here, as are 21 diplomatic missions and the headquarters of many national and international businesses and NGOs. Antananarivo also hosts the largest number of universities, nightclubs, art venues, medical services, several national and local sports teams, including the championship-winning national rugby team, the Makis, and several basketball and football teams, are based in Antananarivo. Declaring it the site of his capital, Andrianjaka built a rova that expanded to become the palaces of the Kingdom of Imerina. The city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Imerina from its founding until 1710 and his diplomatic and military successes extended Imerina far beyond its traditional borders, bringing the lands of neighboring ethnic groups under Merina control. Antananarivo remained the capital after Madagascar was colonized by the French in 1897. This neighborhood was developed under French rule and continues to serve as the capitals economic heart. The city is managed by the Commune Urbaine dAntananarivo under the direction of its President of the Special Delegation, Ny Havana Andriamanjato, Antananarivo was originally the site of a town called Analamanga, meaning Blue Forest in the central highlands dialect of the Malagasy language. Analamanga was established by a community of Vazimba, the islands first occupants, Andrianjaka, king of the Merina people who migrated to the region from the southeast coast, seized the location as the site of his capital city. According to oral history, he deployed a garrison of 1,000 soldiers to successfully capture, the hill and its city retained the name Analamanga until the reign of King Andriamasinavalona, who renamed it Antananarivo in honor of Andrianjakas soldiers. Unlike most capital cities in southern Africa, Antananarivo was already a city before the colonial era. The city was established in around 1610 or 1625 according to varying accounts, early Merina kings used fanampoana to construct a massive system of irrigated paddy fields and dikes around the city to provide adequate rice for the growing population. These paddy fields, of which the largest is called the Betsimitatatra, successive Merina sovereigns ruled over the Kingdom of Imerina from Analamanga through King Andriamasinavalonas reign. Andriamasinavalona designated specific territories for the hova and each andriana subcaste, numerous fady, including injunctions against the construction of wooden houses by non-nobles and the presence of swine within the city limits, were imposed. Upon Andriamasinavalonas death in 1710, Imerina split into four warring quadrants, during the 77-year civil war that followed, the eastern districts capital at Ambohimanga rose in prominence. The last king of Ambohimanga, Andrianampoinimerina, successfully conquered Antananarivo in 1793, he reunited the provinces of Imerina and he moved the kingdoms political capital back to Antananarivo in 1794, and declared Ambohimanga the kingdoms spiritual capital, a role it still maintains

9.
Ethnic groups
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive

10.
Merina people
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The Merina people, also known as the Imerina, Antimerina or Hova, are the largest ethnic group in Madagascar. They are the highlander Malagasy ethnic group of the African island and their origins are mixed, predominantly with Malayo-Indonesians arriving before the 5th century AD, then many centuries later by Arabs, Africans and other ethnic groups. They speak the Merina language, and one of their dialects is the official Malagasy language of Madagascar, the Merina people are most commonly found in the center of the island. The French fought two wars with the Merina people in 1883-1885 and in 1895, colonized Madagascar in 1895–96 and they built innovative and elaborate irrigation infrastructure and highly productive rice farms in high plateaus of Madagascar by the 18th century. Austronesian people started settling in Madagascar between 200 to 500 CE and they arrived by boats and were from various southeast Asian groups. Later Swahili-Arabs and Indian traders came to the northern regions. African slaves were brought to the coasts between the 13th and the 18th centuries. The Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to arrive in the 15th century and this influx of diverse people led to various Malagasy sub-ethnicities in the mid-2nd millennium. The Merina were probably the early arrivals, though this is uncertain, the Merina peoples culture likely mixed and merged with the Madagascar natives named Vazimba about whom little is known. They emerged as the dominant group and a wealthy kingdom towards the close of the 18th century. The capital of their remains the capital of contemporary Madagascar. Oral history traces the emergence of a kingdom in the central highlands of Madagascar – a region called Imerina – back to early 16th-century king Andriamanelo. The colonial British empire recognized the sovereignty of the Merina kingdom, Radama I welcomed European traders and allowed Christian missionaries to establish missions on Madagascar. After him, the Merina people were ruled by Queen Ranavolona I ruled from 1828 to 1861, Queen Rasoherina from 1863 to 1868, the Merina people called the Malagasy living along the coasts as Cotier. These operations and plantations were worked by the labor of imported slaves. The largest influx of slaves was brought in by the Umani Arabs, the Makua people from Mozambique were one of the major victims of this demand, slave capture and export that attempted to satisfy this demand. The slavery was abolished by the French administration in 1896, which impacted the fortunes of Merina and non-Merina operated slave-run plantations. The dominance of the Merina kingdom over all of Madagascar came to an end with the first Franco-Hova War of 1883 to 1885, the French declared Madagascar as a protectorate in 1894, which the then Merina Queen refused to sign to

11.
Betsimisaraka people
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The Betsimisaraka make up approximately fifteen percent of the Malagasy people and are the second largest ethnic group in Madagascar after the Merina. They occupy a large stretch of the eastern seabord of Madagascar, the Betsimisaraka have a long history of extensive interaction with European seafarers and traders that produced a significant subset with mixed European-Malagasy origins, termed the zana-malata. European influence is evident in the local valse and basesa musical genres, Tromba ceremonies feature strongly in Betsimisaraka culture. Through the late 17th century, the clans of the eastern seaboard were governed by chieftains who typically ruled over one or two villages. A zana-malata named Ratsimilaho emerged to unite these clans under his rule in 1710, the fractured Betsimisaraka kingdom was easily colonized in 1817 by Radama I, king of Imerina who ruled from its capital at Antananarivo in the central highlands. Culturally the Betsimisaraka can be divided into northern and southern sub-groups, many elements of culture are common across both groups, including respect for ancestors, spirit possession, the ritual sacrifice of zebu, and a patriarchal social structure. The groups are distinguished by linguistic sub-dialects and various fady, as well as certain funeral practices, the Betsimisaraka practice famadihana and sambatra, and believe in sorcery and a wide range of supernatural forces. Many taboos and folktales revolve around lemurs and crocodiles, both of which are common throughout Betsimisaraka territory, the Betsimisaraka constitute approximately 15 percent of the population of Madagascar and numbered over 1,500,000 in 2011. Like the Sakalava to the west, the Betsimisaraka are composed of numerous ethnic sub-groups that formed a confederation in the early 18th century, most Betsimisaraka are of mixed Bantu African and Asian Austronesian descent. They are often subdivided into northern Betsimisaraka and southern Betsimisaraka, separated by the Betanimena Betsimisaraka sub-clan and those around Antongil Bay in the north held a comparatively more official position, with regalia of leadership attested since at least 1500. Villagers in the surrounding the ports exported rice, cattle, slaves. Intermarriage between these European pirates and the daughters of local chiefs produced a mixed population termed zana-malata. Around 1700 the Tsikoa began uniting around a series of powerful leaders, ramanano, the chief of Vatomandry, was elected in 1710 as the leader of the Tsikoa and initiated invasions of the northern ports. He captured Fenerive in 1712, causing the Tsikoa to flee across soggy red fields of clay stuck to their feet. Ratsimilaho was elected king of all the Betsimisaraka and given a new name and he gave his northern compatriots the name Betsimisaraka to reaffirm their unity in the face of their enemies. By the time of his death in 1754, his moderate and he also allied the Betsimisaraka with the other most powerful kingdom of the time, the Sakalava of the west coast, through marriage with Matave, the only daughter of Iboina king Andrianbaba. Ratsimilahos son Zanahary succeeded him in 1755, a despotic leader, Zanahary launched a series of attacks against villages under his authority and was assassinated by his own subjects in 1767. This action provoked Sakalava ire, and in 1776 Sakalava soldiers invaded the area to punish the Betsimisaraka inhabitants and kill Benyowsky, Zakavolo, Iavys son, succeeded his father upon his death in 1791

12.
Betsileo people
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The Betsileo are a highland ethnic group of Madagascar, the third largest in terms of population, numbering around 1.5 million and making up about 12.1 percent of the population. They chose their name, meaning The Many Invincible Ones, after an invasion by King Ramitraho of the Menabe kingdom in the early 19th century. The Betsileo occupy the south of the Madagascar plateau, most of the Betsileo region lies within the boundaries of the Malagasy province of Fianarantsoa, where their capital city of the same name can be found. Traditionally their territory and their people are divided into three major parts, the Northern Betsileo is defined by the Ivato and Manandona rivers in the north and the Sahanivotry and Mania rivers to the south. The Central Betsileo is found between the Ivato and the Matsiatra rivers, the Southern Betsileo is all the Betsileo territory to the south of the Matsiatra river. The different Betsileo kingdoms existed independently of other with oral traditions dating back to the 17th century. They were all eventually conquered and reorganized by Radama I, a large portion of the Betsileo people were made into slaves and traded domestically or sold to European slave traders. Radama I made Fianarantsoa the administrative capital of the central and southern Betsileo people, the north was attached to Antsirabe. Thus the Betsileo as a group began in the 19th century as a subdivision by the Malagasy government. The Betsileo identity is associated with the Merina culture, since they are both highland-dwelling groups. The Betsileo social structure is determined by a complex system of kinship. There is a connection between family members permeating society to the level of administrative roles and jobs, as most Betsileo are obligated to join their relatives in the family occupation. There is also emphasis on the role of elders as community leaders. Community elders often hold more authority than those in government positions. Betsileo society is influenced by a history of slavery before its abolition during the French colonization. The Betsileo have a system of social organization determined through a number of stratifications. The status structure of the Betsileo is principally determined by the ancestry of an individual’s family, status was historically split between andriana, hova and andevo, the latter being a highly stigmatized term for the lowest social class in contemporary Betsileo society. Since the arrival of European missionaries in the century, much of the Malagasy population has since been converted to Christianity

13.
Tsimihety people
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The Tsimihety are a Malagasy ethnic group who are found in the north-central region of Madagascar. Their name means those who never cut their hair, a behavior likely linked to their independence from Sakalava kingdom, located to their west and they are found in mountainous part of the island. They are one of the largest Malagasy ethnic groups and their population estimates range between 700,000 and over 1.2 million, soon afterward they accepted the rule of the Volafotsy, a clan associated with the Maroserana who had migrated north from Sakalava territory. They are thus not a tribe, because they lack tribal ties and their relationships are centered around biological family and kin. The anarchist system prevailed among the Tsimihety people before the 19th century, however, in 1823, Radama I, the Merina king, brought the entire island under one rule, including the Tsimihety, and abolished slavery. The French colonial rule absorbed the Tsimihety in 1896, as a part of French Madagascar, the Tsimihety have been an active part of Madagascar politics ever since. They are, in words, the anarchists of northwest Madagascar. Graeber states that ultimately, the Tsimihety were eventually gobbled up by the state, gave up the utopia, as they sought economic opportunities, the Tsimihety people are patrilineal, and kin relationships with the male ancestors and descendants are most important to both men and women. Their cultural conventions require extended exogamy, which coupled with high rates have led to their migration. The society is notable for the social roles expected by a Tsimihety family from a maternal uncle. The language of the Tsimihety people is a dialect of the Malagasy language, Tsimihety society and economy, as in much of Madagascar, is primarily focused on agriculture. Rice is the crop, and the Tsimihety raise cattle. Working on crop land on Tuesday is fady – a taboo – among the Tsimihety, the main economic center among the Tsimihety is in Mandritsara. Appiah, Anthony, Gates, Jr. Henry Louis, africana, The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Hainteny, The Traditional Poetry of Madagascar, the Ethical Condition, Essays on Action, Person, and Value. Ogot, Bethwell A. Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, wilson, Peter J. Freedom by a Hairs Breadth, Tsimihety in Madagascar

14.
Sakalava people
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The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the western and northwest region of the island, the Sakalava are one of the smaller ethnic groups, constituting about 6.2 percent of the total population, that is over 1,210,000 in 2014. Their name means people of the long valleys and they occupy the western edge of the island from Toliara in the south to Sambirano in the north. The Sakalava denominate a number of ethnic groups that once comprised an empire. The origin of the word Sakalava itself is subject to controversy. The most common explanation is the modern Malagasy translation of Sakalava meaning long ravines, another theory is that the word is possibly from the Arabic saqaliba, which is in turn derived from Late Latin sclavus, meaning slave. Austronesian people started settling in Madagascar between 200 and 500 CE and they arrived by boats and were from various southeast Asian groups. Later Swahili-Arabs and Indian traders came to the northern regions. African slaves were brought to the island in increasing numbers between the 15th and the 18th centuries, particularly to the region where Sakalava people now live and this influx of diverse people led to various Malagasy sub-ethnicities in the mid-2nd millennium. The Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to arrive in the 15th century, the founder of Sakalava legacy was 15th century Andriamisara. His descendant Andriandahifotsy, after 1610, then extended his authority northwards, past the Mangoky River and his two sons, Andriamanetiarivo and Andriamandisoarivo extended gains further up to the Tsongay region. The chiefs of the different coastal settlements on the island began to extend their power to control trade, the first significant Sakalava kingdoms were formed about the 1650s. They dominated the western of northwestern regions of Madagascar during the 1700s, the Sakalava chiefdoms of the Menabe, centred in what was then known as Andakabe, now the town of Morondava, were principal among them. The influence of the Sakalava extended across what is now the provinces of Antsiranana, Mahajanga, the Sakalava kingdom reached its peak geographic spread between 1730-1760, under King Andrianinevenarivo. According to local tradition, the founders of the Sakalava kingdom were Maroseraña princes and they may also be descended from the Zafiraminia clans from the southwestern part of the island, possibly from Arab origin. Initially the Arabs exclusively supplied weapons to the Sakalava in exchange for slaves and these slaves were obtained from slave raids to Comoros and other coastal settlements of Madagascar, as well as from merchant ships arriving from the Swahili coast of Africa. The Sakalava kingdom quickly subjugated the neighbouring territories in the Mahafaly area, the Merina oral histories and documents in Comoros mention series of annual expeditions by Sakalava slave raiders against their villages through the end of the 18th century. These expeditions were aided by guns obtained from the Arabs, a weapon that both Comoros and Merina people lacked, the largest and one of most favored ports for slave trade on Madagascar was the Sakalava coastal town of Mahajanga

15.
Antaisaka people
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The Antesaka, also known as Tesaka, or Tesaki, are an ethnic group of Madagascar traditionally concentrated south of Farafangana along the south-eastern coast. They have since spread widely throughout the island. The Antesaka form about 5% of the population of Madagascar and they have mixed African, Arab and Malayo-Indonesian ancestry, like the western coastal Sakalava people of Madagascar from whom the clan derives. They traditionally have strong marriage taboos and complex funeral rites, the Antesaka typically cultivate coffee, bananas and rice, and those along the coast engage in fishing. A large portion of the population has emigrated to parts of the island for work. The group was founded by Andriamandresy, a Sakalava prince who was cast out of Menabe after engaging in violence upon being passed over in the line of succession, as of 2013, an estimated 600,000 Malagasy identify as Antesaka. Antesaka have mixed African, Arab and Malayo-Indonesian ancestry, and are descended from a branch of the coastal Sakalava people of western Madagascar. Many Antesaka kings descended from the Zarabehava lineage, a royal Sakalava line that crossed to the east coast between 1620 and 1650, the ancestors of the Antesaka migrated from the Menabe Sakalava kingdom and arrived at Nosipandra by the 1650s. According to oral history, the founder of the Antesaka clan was named Andriamandresy and he was born Repila in the village of Tsiarepioky, near Mahabo, he later changed his name to Ihazorango, and finally adopted the name Andriamandresiarivo in anticipation of being named king. Outraged, Andriamandresys mother exiled him from the territory, and Andraimandresy departed toward the east accompanied by warriors, by the start of the 17th century, the Antesaka had formed one of the four largest kingdoms on Madagascar. Succession was often contested and a source of internal conflict, according to oral history, a king called Ratongalaza had to kill or exile all his brothers to secure the throne. The last and most important king of the 18th century, Lengoabo, was Ratongalazas grandson, in the 19th century, the Antesaka kingdom was invaded by the Merina armies of the Kingdom of Imerina in the central highlands. In the Merina military conquests between 1820 and 1853, captured Antesaka men were killed, but women and children were often taken as slaves back to Imerina. Over a million slaves were captured during this time, with the majority from the Antesaka, Antefasy, Antanosy, France colonized Madagascar in 1895, and the Merina monarchy was disbanded in 1897. When several southern ethnic groups mounted the unsuccessful insurrection du sud rebellion against French colonial administration in 1904–05, in the run up to independence from France, two Antefasy brothers founded lUnion Démocratique et Sociale, one of the most successful cross-island political parties. Their representatives took the top position in the Provincial Councils of Tuléar, one of the partys founders, Norbert Zafimahova, was twice elected as president of the Territorial Assembly, delegated to represent Madagascars interests in the French Senate in 1958. Family life and marriage in particular is regulated by numerous fady, twins are seen as taboo, and were traditionally killed after birth or left in the forest to die. Although this practice has been outlawed, it persists among some traditional communities, in villages they inhabit rectangular one-room houses made of local plant material

16.
Antandroy
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The Antandroy are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group of Madagascar inhabiting the arid southern part of the island called Androy. They are particularly known for their dances, cotton woven clothing, elaborately decorated tombs. The herding of zebu remains the economic activity of the Antandroy. The name Tandroy means people of the thorns in reference to the thickets of endemic plants that characterize the southwestern region of Madagascar. They tend to bear stronger East African than Austronesian features, the Antandroy trace their ancestry back to the Sakalava people. There are around 600,000 Antandroy as of 2013 and they constitute the fifth largest ethnic group on the island. The inhabitants of the Tandroy region identify with one of two distinct traditions, the oral history of the Karimbola clan inhabiting the western portion of Tandroy does not describe a migration into the area, but rather implies the inhabitants were always present. In the early 18th century, the westernmost portion of Tandroy was conquered by the Menarandra dynasty of the neighboring Mahafaly people, in the eastern portion of Tandroy, the original population of the Mahandrovato clan was gradually outnumbered by Antanosy and Bara refugees. By the early 18th century a centralized confederation emerged to unite all those living between the Menarandra and Mendare rivers and this confederation was ruled by a dynasty of Zafimanara, a sub-group of the Mahandrovato clan, which gave the region and its people the name Antandroy. Zafimanara power waned around 1790 when significant flooding and the consequent ecological upheaval prompted them to flee to the Manombo plateau, throughout French colonization of Madagascar, the Antandroy - alongside the Mahafaly - were viewed as the most uncivilized of the islands ethnic groups. This perception spread among fellow Malagasy, establishing a stereotype that characterized the Antandroy as half-clothed savages, the toppling of the Tsiranana presidency and end of the First Republic in 1972 was sparked by the armed protest of Antandroy peasants in Toliara against corruption in tax collection. The Antandroy are a nomadic ethnic group of Madagascar inhabiting the arid southern part of the island called Androy. Antandroy families are patriarchal and women are expected to be subordinate to the males in their family, circumcision is an important ritual for male Antandroy, and among some communities the foreskin is shot from the barrel of a gun in celebration. The Antandroy share the common Malagasy beliefs in a god and the eternal life and power of the ancestors, who intervene in the affairs of the living. The Antandroy commune with and can be possessed by the ancestors by entering a state called bilo. Crocodiles are commonly feared among the Antandroy, and members of the Zafindravoay clan believe they are the descendants of a union between a Tandroy woman and a crocodile. In addition, the spirit is believed to be able to exert positive or negative influence over events in the life of a Tandroy. Mpisoro soothsayers are a feature of Antandroy village society and are a respected authority in traditional communities

17.
Ethnic groups of Madagascar
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Madagascars population is predominantly of mixed Austronesian and East African origin. The problem with population estimation in Madagascar is that data is very old, the last population census was carried out in 1993, after an initial 1975 census. There was an attempt at a census in 2009, but this ultimately failed due to political instability. Therefore, the situation is inferred but reliability of any estimates from any source has a large margin of error. According to the 2010 revision of the World Population Prospects the total population was 20714000 in 2010, compared to only 4084000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 43. 1%,53. 8% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3. 1% was 65 years or older, structure of the population, Numbers are in thousands. UN medium variant projections 201523,852202027,365202531,217203035,333203539,643204044,132204548,782205053,561 Registration of vital events in Madagascar is not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates and this group is further subdivided a number of ethnic groups, often into the standard eighteen. More recent arrivals include Europeans and Chinese immigrants, Madagascar was probably uninhabited prior to Austronesian settlement in the early centuries AD. The largest coastal groups are the Betsimisaraka and the Tsimihety and Sakalava, Malagasy society has long been polarized between the politically and economically advantaged highlanders of the central plateaux and the people along the coast. Identity politics were also at the core of the civil unrest during 2002. Indians in Madagascar descend mostly from traders who arrived in the independent nation looking for better opportunities. The majority of them came from the west coast of India known as Karana, the majority speak Hindi or Gujarati, although some other Indian dialects are also spoken. Nowadays the younger generations speak at least three languages, including French, Gujarati and Malagasy, a large number of the Indians in Madagascar have a high level of education, particularly the younger generation. A sizeable number of Europeans also reside in Madagascar, mostly of French descent, about half the population of Madagascar practices traditional religions, which tend to emphasize links between the living and the dead. They believe that the dead join their ancestors in the ranks of divinity and this spiritual communion is celebrated by the Merina and Betsileo reburial practice of famadihana, or turning over the dead. In this ritual, relatives remains are removed from the tomb, rewrapped in new silk shrouds. In the festivities, they eat, drink, and literally dance with the dead, after one or two days of celebrating, they shower the body with gifts and re-bury it

18.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above

19.
Malagasy people
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The Malagasy are the ethnic group that forms nearly the entire population of Madagascar. This division has its roots in historical patterns of settlement, sometime later, a large number of settlers arrived from East Africa and established kingdoms along the relatively unpopulated coastlines. The difference in ethnic origins remains somewhat evident between the highland and coastal regions, in addition to the ethnic distinction between highland and coastal Malagasy, one may speak of a political distinction as well. Merina monarchs in the late 18th and early 19th century, the people united the Merina principalities. They later extended Merina control over the majority of the areas as well. The military resistance and eventual defeat of most of the coastal communities assured their subordinate position vis-à-vis the Merina-Betsileo alliance, the number of such ethnic groups in Madagascar has been debated. The practices that distinguished many of groups are less prevalent in the 21st century than they were in the past. But, many Malagasy are proud to proclaim their association with one or several of these groups as part of their own cultural identity, three Malagasy populations, Temoro, Vezo, and Mikea, have approx. 70% African ancestry and 30% Asian ancestry, in a 2010 study, the Polynesian motif frequency occurs varied among three ethnic groups, 50% in Merina,22 % in Vezo, and 13% in Mikea. There are two additional mutations found in all Polynesian motif carriers of Madagascar, hence named the Malagasy motif, most likely scenario is that Madagascar was settled approximately 1200 years ago by a very small group, which consist of approx. 30 women, where 28 of them have Island Southeast Asian descent and 2 of them have African descent, the closest Asian parental population of the Malagasy are the Banjarese and other South Kalimantan Dayak people of south east Borneo. Some Malagasy were among peoples taken captive and sold as slaves in the Atlantic slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries, the best-known community of descendants are in Morropón, a city in northern Peru, the Afro-Peruvians of Malagasy descent number about 7,000. They call themselves Mangaches or Malgaches and this section of Piura is called la Mangachería. Malagasy slaves were transported during slavery times to Brazil and the US, but their number. It is likely most of these descendants are not aware of their Malagasy ancestry, robert Reed Church, an African-American businessman in Memphis, Tennessee in the 19th century, was said to be of Malagasy descent through his enslaved mother. Memories of Madagascar and Slavery in the Black Atlantic by Wendy Wilson-Fall,2015, Ohio University Press—Malagasy diaspora Sandra Evers, Gwyn Campbell, contest for Land in Madagascar, Environment, Ancestors and Development

20.
Politics of Madagascar
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Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Senate and the National Assembly, the Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Madagascars first President, Philibert Tsiranana, was elected when his Social Democratic Party gained power at independence in 1960 and was reelected without opposition in March 1972, however, he resigned only 2 months later in response to massive anti-government demonstrations. For much of period, only limited and restrained political opposition was tolerated. With an easing of restrictions on expression, beginning in the late 1980s. In response to an economy, Ratsiraka relaxed socialist economic policies and instituted some liberal. In an increasingly weakened position, Ratsiraka acceded to negotiations on the formation of a transitional government, the High Constitutional Court was retained as the ultimate judicial arbiter of the process. In March 1992, a widely representative National Forum organized by the FFKM drafted a new Constitution, the text of the new Constitution was put to a nationwide referendum in August 1992 and approved by a wide margin, despite efforts by federalists to disrupt balloting in several coastal areas. Presidential elections were held on November 25,1992, after the High Constitutional Court had ruled, over Hery Velona objections, runoff elections were held in February 1993, and the leader of the Hery Velona movement, Albert Zafy, defeated Ratsiraka. Zafy was sworn in as President on March 27,1993, a National Assembly dominated by members of President Ratsirakaa political party AREMA subsequently passed the 1998 Constitution, which considerably strengthened the presidency. In December 2001, an election was held in which both major candidates claimed victory. The Ministry of the Interior declared incumbent Ratsiraka of the AREMA party victorious, marc Ravalomanana contested the results and claimed victory. A political crisis followed in which Ratsiraka supporters cut major transport routes from the port city to the capital city. Sporadic violence and considerable economic disruption continued until July 2002 when Ratsiraka, in addition to political differences, ethnic differences played a role in the crisis and continue to play a role in politics. Ratsiraka is from the coastal Betsimisaraka tribe and Ravalomanana comes from the highland Merina tribe, after the end of the 2002 political crisis, President Ravalomanana began many reform projects, forcefully advocating rapid and durable development and the launching of a battle against corruption. December 2002 legislative elections gave his newly formed TIM Party a commanding majority in the National Assembly, November 2003 municipal elections were conducted freely, returning a majority of supporters of the president, but also significant numbers of independent and regional opposition figures. Following the crisis of 2002, the President replaced provincial governors with appointed PDSs, subsequent legislation established a structure of 22 regions to decentralize administration. In September 2004, the Government named 22 Regional Chiefs, reporting directly to the President, financing and specific powers for the regional administrations remain to be clarified

21.
Unitary state
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The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states,165 of them are governed as unitary states, unitary states are contrasted with federal states. In a unitary state, sub-national units are created and abolished, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an example of a unitary state. Many unitary states have no areas possessing a degree of autonomy, in such countries, sub-national regions cannot decide their own laws. Examples are the Republic of Ireland and the Kingdom of Norway, in federal states, the sub-national governments share powers with the central government as equal actors through a written constitution, to which the consent of both is required to make amendments. This means that the units have a right of existence. The United States of America is an example of a federal state, under the U. S. Constitution, powers are shared between the federal government and the states

22.
Semi-presidential system
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A semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of a state. There are two subtypes of semi-presidentialism, premier-presidentialism and president-parliamentarism. Under the premier-presidential system, the minister and cabinet are exclusively accountable to parliament. The president chooses the prime minister and cabinet, but only the parliament may remove them from office with a vote of no confidence, the president does not have the right to dismiss the prime minister or the cabinet. However, in cases, the president can circumvent this limitation by exercising the discretionary power of dissolving the assembly. This subtype is used in Burkina Faso, France, Georgia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Niger, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. Under the president-parliamentary system, the minister and cabinet are dually accountable to the president. The president chooses the prime minister and the cabinet but must have the support of the parliament majority for his choice. In order to remove a prime minister or the cabinet from power. This form of semi-presidentialism is much closer to pure presidentialism and it is used in Armenia, Georgia between 2004 and 2013, Mozambique, Namibia, Russia, Taiwan and Ukraine between 1996 and 2005, and again from 2010 to 2014. It was used in Germany during the Weimarer Republik, as the regime between 1919 and 1933 is called unofficially. The powers that are divided between president and prime minister can vary greatly between countries and it is up to the president to decide, how much autonomy he leaves to his prime minister to act on his own. Semi-presidential systems may experience periods in which the President and the Prime Minister are from differing political parties. This is called cohabitation, a term originated in France when the situation first arose in the 1980s. In most cases, cohabitation results from a system in which the two executives are not elected at the time or for the same term. For example, in 1981, France elected both a Socialist president and legislature, which yielded a Socialist premier, but whereas the presidents term of office was for seven years, the National Assembly only served for five. When, in the 1986 legislative election, the French people elected a right-of-centre Assembly, however, in 2000, amendments to the French Constitution reduced the length of the French Presidents term from seven to five years. This has significantly lowered the chances of occurring, as parliamentary

23.
Constitutional republic
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It is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology, composition, in the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as humanism, is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect, Republics became more common in the Western world starting in the late 18th century, eventually displacing absolute monarchy as the most common form of government in Europe. In modern republics, the executive is legitimized both by a constitution and by popular suffrage, for instance, Article IV of the United States Constitution guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government. The term originates as the Latin translation of Greek word politeia, cicero, among other Latin writers, translated politeia as res publica and it was in turn translated by Renaissance scholars as republic. The term politeia can be translated as form of government, polity, or regime, and is therefore not always a word for a specific type of regime as the modern word republic is. And also amongst classical Latin, the term republic can be used in a way to refer to any regime. In medieval Northern Italy, a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments, in the late Middle Ages, writers, such as Giovanni Villani, began writing about the nature of these states and the differences from other types of regime. They used terms such as libertas populi, a free people, the terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology. To describe non-monarchical states writers, most importantly Leonardo Bruni, adopted the Latin phrase res publica. While Bruni and Machiavelli used the term to describe the states of Northern Italy, which were not monarchies, the term can quite literally be translated as public matter. It was most often used by Roman writers to refer to the state and government, in subsequent centuries, the English word commonwealth came to be used as a translation of res publica, and its use in English was comparable to how the Romans used the term res publica. Notably, during The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell the word commonwealth was the most common term to call the new monarchless state, likewise, in Polish, the term was translated as rzeczpospolita, although the translation is now only used with respect to Poland. Presently, the term republic commonly means a system of government which derives its power from the rather than from another basis. After the classical period, during the Middle Ages, many cities developed again. The modern type of itself is different from any type of state found in the classical world. Nevertheless, there are a number of states of the era that are today still called republics

24.
Hery Rajaonarimampianina
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Hery Rajaonarimampianina is a Malagasy politician who has been President of Madagascar since January 2014. Previously he served as Minister of Finance under President Andry Rajoelina and he won the vote in a second round, defeating Jean-Louis Robinson, the candidate of Marc Ravalomananas camp. Once he was elected, Rajaonarimampianina holds the record of the Head of State with the longest name as well as family name. Hery Rajaonarimampianina was born to a modest family and he lived in Sabotsy Namehana, neighborhood of Antananarivo, Madagascar. In 1982, Rajaonarimampianina obtained a MBA at the Etablissement d’Enseignement Supérieur de Droit, d’Economie, then, he moved to Canada to complete his training in finance and accounting at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, receiving a postgraduate diploma in accounting science in 1986. Rajaonarimampianina obtained the Canadian Diploma of Accounting from the Certified General Accountant’s Association in 1991, in 1991, Rajaonarimampianina went back to Madagascar and worked as accountant. In 1995, Rajaonarimampianina created the accountant firm Auditeurs Associes – C. G. A, with 50 associates, the firm operates throughout Madagascar for private commercial companies either national or international. It also assists entities in their projects supported by international fundraisers, in 2009, Rajaonarimampianina became Minister of Finance and Budget, at a time marked by the withdrawal of the main international funders of Madagascar since 2008. Rajaonarimampianina set up the political organisation Hery Vaovao hoani Madagasikara in 2013, after the first round Rajaonarimampianina received 15. 62%, second to Robinson. The sum of all opponents of former President Ravalomananas party reached a score of 55%, on 26 May 2015, the Parliament of Madagascar voted to remove the president from office, due to alleged constitutional violations and general incompetence. The constitutional court disallowed the motion under the grounds the accusations were unfounded and thus inadmissible

25.
Upper house
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An upper house, sometimes called a Senate, is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the house is usually smaller. Examples of upper houses in countries include the UKs House of Lords, Canadas Senate, Indias Rajya Sabha, Russias Federation Council, Irelands Seanad, Germanys Bundesrat, a legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral. An upper house is different from the lower house in at least one of the following respects, Powers, In a parliamentary system. Therefore, in countries the Upper House votes on only limited legislative matters. Cannot vote a motion of no confidence against the government, while the house always can. In a presidential system, It may have equal or nearly equal power with the lower house and it may have specific powers not granted to the lower house. For example, It may give advice and consent to some executive decisions and it may have the sole power to try impeachments against officials of the executive, following enabling resolutions passed by the lower house. Status, In some countries, its members are not popularly elected, membership may be indirect and its members may be elected with a different voting system than that used to elect the lower house. Less populated states, provinces, or administrative divisions may be represented in the upper house than in the lower house. Members terms may be longer than in the house. Members may be elected in portions, for staggered terms, rather than all at one time, in some countries, the upper house cannot be dissolved at all, or can be dissolved only in more limited circumstances than the lower house. It typically has fewer members or seats than the lower house and it has usually a higher age of candidacy than the lower house. In parliamentary systems the upper house is seen as an advisory or revising chamber. Some or all of the restrictions are often placed on upper houses. No absolute veto of proposed legislation, though suspensive vetoes are permitted in some states, in countries where it can veto legislation, it may not be able to amend the proposals. A reduced or even absent role in initiating legislation, additionally, a Government must have the consent of both to remain in office, a position which is known as perfect bicameralism or equal bicameralism. An example is the British House of Lords, bills can only be delayed for up to one year before the Commons can use the Parliament Act, although economic bills can only be delayed for one month

26.
Senate of Madagascar
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The Senate is the upper chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Madagascar. The Senate has 33 members,22 are indirectly elected, one each of the 22 regions of Madagascar. As of 9 February 2016 its President is Honoré Rakotomanana, the Senate existed under the First Republic and was a weaker body than the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. Only the National Assembly could vote on a motion of censure against the government, two-thirds of the First Republic Senators were elected by provincial and municipal bodies, serving six-year terms, while the other one-third were appointed by the government. Under the Second Republic, the Senate was abolished, leaving the National Assembly as the unicameral parliament, under the Third Republic, the Senate was restored, with two-thirds of the Senators being indirectly elected and the other one-third being appointed by the President. As was the case during the First Republic, it cannot vote to censure the government, prior to the Senate election held on April 20,2008, at which time the reduction to 33 members took effect, the Senate had 90 members. Sixty Senators,10 for each province, were elected by provincial electors, in the April 2008 Senate election, the ruling Tiako i Madagasikara won all 22 of the elected seats. The President of TIM, Yvan Randriasandratriniony, was elected as President of the Senate on May 6,2008, previously, the President of the Senate is the legal successor to the President of the Republic in the event of a vacancy in the latter position. In March 2009 interim-president Andry Rajoelina dissolved both Houses of Parliament, on 29 December 2015 elections were held for the Senate,42 senators were elected by mayors and councillors. These were the first elections since the dissolving of the Senate in 2009, on 1 February 2016 the remaining 21 senators were appointed by Madagascar President Hery Rajaonarimampianina

27.
Lower house
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A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position below the house, in many legislatures worldwide. A legislature composed of one house is described as unicameral. In comparison with the house, lower houses frequently display certain characteristics, Powers In a parliamentary system, Much more power. Able to override the upper house in some ways, can vote a motion of no confidence against the government. In a presidential system, Somewhat less power, as the house alone gives advice. Given the sole power to impeach the executive Status Always elected directly, while the house may be elected directly, indirectly. Its members may be elected with a different voting system to the upper house, most populated administrative divisions are better represented than in the upper house, representation is usually proportional to population. Elected all at once, not by staggered terms, in a parliamentary system, can be dissolved by the executive. Has total or original control over budget and monetary laws, lower age of candidacy than the upper house. Many lower houses are named in the manner, House/Chamber of Representatives/the People/Commons/Deputies

28.
National Assembly of Madagascar
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The lower house is the National Assembly. The Assembly has 151 members, elected for a term in single-member and two-member constituencies. The Senate has 33 members,22 are elected, one from each district of Madagascar, the last election was held on 20 December 2013. List of Presidents of the National Assembly of Madagascar Official website

29.
Independence
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Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over the territory. The opposite of independence is a dependent territory, Independence does not necessarily mean freedom. Whether the attainment of independence is different from revolution has long been contested, nation-states have been granted independence without any revolutionary acts. The Russian October Revolution, for example, was not intended to seek national independence, however, the American Revolutionary War was intended to achieve independence from the beginning. Causes for a country or province wishing to seek independence are many, the means can extend from peaceful demonstrations, like in the case of the Indian independence movement, to a violent civil war. Autonomy refers to a kind of independence which has been granted by an authority that itself still retains ultimate authority over that territory. A protectorate refers to a region that depends upon a larger government for its protection as an autonomous region. Declaring independence and attaining it however, are quite different, a well-known successful example is the U. S. Declaration of Independence issued in 1776, the dates of established independence, are typically celebrated as a national holiday known as an independence day

30.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

31.
Malagasy constitutional referendum, 2010
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A constitutional referendum was held in Madagascar on 17 November 2010, in which voters approved a proposal for the states fourth Constitution. The Malagasy people were asked to answer Yes or No to the new constitution. Rajoelina heads the governing Highest Transitional Authority, an interim junta established following the military-backed coup détat against then President Marc Ravalomanana in March 2009, Rajoelina was inaugurated as transitional president on 17 March 2009 following a military-backed coup led by Colonel Charles Andrianasoavina against Marc Ravalomanana. He then scheduled the referendum over a new constitution, the plebiscite was seen as a test of confidence in Rajoelina and a key element by him to legitimise his government. The date was set for September 2009, with presidential elections in October 2010. This was later postponed to October 2009 before being cancelled, then, a new referendum was set for 12 August 2010, on 29 June 2010, however, the referendum was indefinitely postponed yet again. Finally, on 14 August, a new date of 17 November was announced, one change in the new constitution sought to keep the leader of the HAT as interim president until an election could take place. Analysts said this could allow Rajoelina to remain in power indefinitely, because hes set no date for stepping down, the next presidential election was scheduled to be held in September 2011. Rajoelina has declared he has no intention of contesting the election, however, an amendment in the new constitution would lower the eligibility age to run for president from 40 to 35 years, allowing the 36-year-old Rajoelina to stand should he choose. Madagascars three main parties, Tiako i Madagasikara, AREMA, and AVI, each headed by a former president. The boycotts came in protest over Rajoelinas refusal to form a government in accordance with a pact drawn up. They also criticised the change of rules in the middle of the voting process. The day before the poll there were disturbances in the capital Antananarivo. Just over 7 million people in total were registered to vote, during the voting process, the government also decided to soften regulations for young people who had reached the voting age but were not yet registered on the electoral roll. The day was declared a holiday to encourage voters to go to the polls. After receiving complaints about this from voters, the executive closed the polls at 18,00 instead of 16,00, after 99% of votes were cast,74. 13% approved the ballot with a turnout of 53%. The new constitution was promulgated on 11 December 2010, starting the Fourth Republic of Madagascar, on election day, reports indicated that 21 military officers had taken control of the country. Colonel Charles Andrianasoavina, who had backed the previous coup that brought Rajoelina to power, was the lead colonel who made the declaration saying the government had been dissolved

32.
Geography of Madagascar
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Madagascar is a large island in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of southern Africa, east of Mozambique. It is the fourth largest island in the world, the highest point is Maromokotro, in the Tsaratanana Massif region in the north of the island, at 2,876 metres. The capital Antananarivo is in the Hauts Plateaux near the centre of the island, Madagascar has a total area of 587,040 square kilometres with 581,540 square kilometres of land and 5,500 square kilometres of water. Madagascar is 400 kilometres east of mainland Africa, Madagascar originated as part of the Gondwana supercontinent. Its west coast was formed when Africa broke off from Gondwana around 165 million years ago, Madagascar eventually broke off from India about 88 million years ago. Madagascar can be divided into five geographical regions, the east coast, the Tsaratanana Massif, the central highlands, the west coast. The highest elevations parallel the east coast, the coastal region extends roughly from north of Baie dAntongil, the most prominent feature on the Masoala Peninsula, to the far north of the island. The coastline is straight, with the exception of a bay, the beach slopes steeply into deep water. The east coast is considered dangerous for swimmers and sailors because of the number of sharks that frequent the shoreline. Madagascar also has many mountains, forests, rivers, and lakes, the Tsaratanana Massif region at the north end of the island contains, at 2,880 metres, the highest point on the island. Further north is the Montagne dAmbre, which is of volcanic origin, the central highlands extend from the Tsaratanana Massif in the north to the Ivakoany Massif in the south. They are defined rather clearly by the escarpments along the east coast, the central highlands include the Anjafy High Plateaux, the volcanic formations of Itasy and the Ankaratra Massif, reaching a height of 2,643 m. The Isalo Roiniforme Massif lies between the highlands and the west coast. Antananarivo, the capital, is located in the northern portion of the central highlands at 1,276 m above sea level. The lake is located 761 m above sea level and is bordered by two cliffs, rising 701 m to the west and 488 m to the east, which form the walls of a valley and this region has experienced geological subsidence, and earth tremors are frequent. The west coast, composed of sedimentary formations, is more indented than the east coast, thus offering a number of harbors sheltered from cyclones, such as the harbor at Mahajanga. Silting up of harbors on this coast, caused by sediment from the levels of erosion suffered inland in Madagascar, is a major problem. The giant oil fields of Tsimiroro and Bemolanga lie towards the west of the island, the southwest is bordered on the east by the Ivakoany Massif and on the north by the Isala Roiniforme Massif

33.
Demographics of Madagascar
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Madagascars population is predominantly of mixed Austronesian and East African origin. The problem with population estimation in Madagascar is that data is very old, the last population census was carried out in 1993, after an initial 1975 census. There was an attempt at a census in 2009, but this ultimately failed due to political instability. Therefore, the situation is inferred but reliability of any estimates from any source has a large margin of error. According to the 2010 revision of the World Population Prospects the total population was 20714000 in 2010, compared to only 4084000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 43. 1%,53. 8% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3. 1% was 65 years or older, structure of the population, Numbers are in thousands. UN medium variant projections 201523,852202027,365202531,217203035,333203539,643204044,132204548,782205053,561 Registration of vital events in Madagascar is not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates and this group is further subdivided a number of ethnic groups, often into the standard eighteen. More recent arrivals include Europeans and Chinese immigrants, Madagascar was probably uninhabited prior to Austronesian settlement in the early centuries AD. The largest coastal groups are the Betsimisaraka and the Tsimihety and Sakalava, Malagasy society has long been polarized between the politically and economically advantaged highlanders of the central plateaux and the people along the coast. Identity politics were also at the core of the civil unrest during 2002. Indians in Madagascar descend mostly from traders who arrived in the independent nation looking for better opportunities. The majority of them came from the west coast of India known as Karana, the majority speak Hindi or Gujarati, although some other Indian dialects are also spoken. Nowadays the younger generations speak at least three languages, including French, Gujarati and Malagasy, a large number of the Indians in Madagascar have a high level of education, particularly the younger generation. A sizeable number of Europeans also reside in Madagascar, mostly of French descent, about half the population of Madagascar practices traditional religions, which tend to emphasize links between the living and the dead. They believe that the dead join their ancestors in the ranks of divinity and this spiritual communion is celebrated by the Merina and Betsileo reburial practice of famadihana, or turning over the dead. In this ritual, relatives remains are removed from the tomb, rewrapped in new silk shrouds. In the festivities, they eat, drink, and literally dance with the dead, after one or two days of celebrating, they shower the body with gifts and re-bury it

34.
List of countries and dependencies by population
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This is a list of countries and dependent territories by population. For instance, the United Kingdom is considered as a single entity while the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are considered separately, in addition, this list includes certain states with limited recognition not found in ISO 3166-1. The population figures do not reflect the practice of countries that report significantly different populations of citizens domestically, some countries, notably Thailand, do not report total population, exclusively counting citizens, for total populations an international agency must issue an estimate. Also given in percent is each countrys population compared to the population of the world, figures used in this chart are based on the most up to date estimate or projections by the national census authority where available, and are usually rounded off. Where updated national data are not available, figures are based on the projections for 2016 by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Because the compiled figures are not collected at the time in every country, or at the same level of accuracy. Furthermore, the addition of figures from all countries may not equal the world total, a handful of nations have not conducted a census in over 30 years, providing high error margin estimates only. Areas that form parts of sovereign states, such as the countries of the United Kingdom, are counted as part of the sovereign states concerned. Note, All dependent territories or constituent countries that are parts of states are shown in italics

35.
Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices

36.
Purchasing power parity
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Observed deviations of the exchange rate from purchasing power parity are measured by deviations of the real exchange rate from its PPP value of 1. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of exchange rates. For example, suppose that two countries produce the same amounts of goods as each other in each of two different years. But if one countrys GDP is converted into the countrys currency using PPP exchange rates instead of observed market exchange rates. The idea originated with the School of Salamanca in the 16th century, the best-known purchasing power adjustment is the Geary–Khamis dollar. The real exchange rate is equal to the nominal exchange rate. If purchasing power parity held exactly, then the exchange rate would always equal one. However, in practice the exchange rates exhibit both short run and long run deviations from this value, for example due to reasons illuminated in the Balassa–Samuelson theorem. There can be marked differences between purchasing power adjusted incomes and those converted via market exchange rates. This discrepancy has large implications, for instance, when converted via the exchange rates GDP per capita in India is about US$1,965 while on a PPP basis it is about US$7,197. At the other extreme, Denmarks nominal GDP per capita is around US$62,100, the purchasing power parity exchange rate serves two main functions. PPP exchange rates can be useful for making comparisons between countries because they stay fairly constant from day to day or week to week and only change modestly, if at all, from year to year. The PPP exchange-rate calculation is controversial because of the difficulties of finding comparable baskets of goods to compare purchasing power across countries, people in different countries typically consume different baskets of goods. It is necessary to compare the cost of baskets of goods and this is a difficult task because purchasing patterns and even the goods available to purchase differ across countries. Thus, it is necessary to make adjustments for differences in the quality of goods, furthermore, the basket of goods representative of one economy will vary from that of another, Americans eat more bread, Chinese more rice. Hence a PPP calculated using the US consumption as a base will differ from that calculated using China as a base, additional statistical difficulties arise with multilateral comparisons when more than two countries are to be compared. Various ways of averaging bilateral PPPs can provide a stable multilateral comparison. These are all issues of indexing, as with other price indices there is no way to reduce complexity to a single number that is equally satisfying for all purposes

37.
Gini coefficient
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The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nations residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality. It was developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini, the Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution. A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same, a Gini coefficient of 1 expresses maximal inequality among values. However, a greater than one may occur if some persons represent negative contribution to the total. For larger groups, values close to or above 1 are very unlikely in practice, the exception to this is in the redistribution of wealth resulting in a minimum income for all people. When the population is sorted, if their distribution were to approximate a well known function. The Gini coefficient was proposed by Gini as a measure of inequality of income or wealth, the global income Gini coefficient in 2005 has been estimated to be between 0.61 and 0.68 by various sources. There are some issues in interpreting a Gini coefficient, the same value may result from many different distribution curves. The demographic structure should be taken into account, Countries with an aging population, or with a baby boom, experience an increasing pre-tax Gini coefficient even if real income distribution for working adults remains constant. Scholars have devised over a dozen variants of the Gini coefficient, the line at 45 degrees thus represents perfect equality of incomes. The Gini coefficient can then be thought of as the ratio of the area lies between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve over the total area under the line of equality. It is also equal to 2A and to 1 - 2B due to the fact that A + B =0.5. If all people have non-negative income, the Gini coefficient can theoretically range from 0 to 1, in practice, both extreme values are not quite reached. If negative values are possible, then the Gini coefficient could theoretically be more than 1, normally the mean is assumed positive, which rules out a Gini coefficient less than zero. An alternative approach would be to consider the Gini coefficient as half of the mean absolute difference. The effects of income policy due to redistribution can be seen in the linear relationships. An informative simplified case just distinguishes two levels of income, low and high, if the high income group is u % of the population and earns a fraction f % of all income, then the Gini coefficient is f − u. An actual more graded distribution with these same values u and f will always have a higher Gini coefficient than f − u, the proverbial case where the richest 20% have 80% of all income would lead to an income Gini coefficient of at least 60%

38.
Human Development Index
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The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the level is higher. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, while the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that the IHDI is the actual level of human development, and the HDI can be viewed as an index of potential human development. The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports produced by the Human Development Reports Office of the United Nations Development Programme, nobel laureate Amartya Sen, utilized Haqs work in his own work on human capabilities. The following three indices are used,1, Life Expectancy Index = LE −2085 −20 LEI is 1 when Life expectancy at birth is 85 and 0 when Life expectancy at birth is 20. Education Index = MYSI + EYSI22.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index = MYS15 Fifteen is the maximum of this indicator for 2025. 2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index = EYS18 Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a degree in most countries. Income Index = ln ⁡ − ln ⁡ ln ⁡ − ln ⁡ II is 1 when GNI per capita is $75,000 and 0 when GNI per capita is $100. Finally, the HDI is the mean of the previous three normalized indices, HDI = LEI ⋅ EI ⋅ II3. Standard of living, as indicated by the logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. This methodology was used by the UNDP until their 2011 report, the formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme. The 2016 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on March 21,2017, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2015 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data. Countries in the top quartile of HDI with a missing IHDI, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The 2015 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on December 14,2015, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2014 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. Note, The green arrows, red arrows, and blue dashes represent changes in rank, the rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data

39.
List of countries by Human Development Index
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This is a list of all the countries by the Human Development Index as included in a United Nations Development Programmes Human Development Report. The latest report was released on 21 March 2017 and compiled on the basis of estimates for 2015, in the 2010 Human Development Report a further Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index was introduced. While the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that the IHDI is the level of human development. The Human Development Index is a statistic of life expectancy, education. A country scores higher HDI when the life expectancy at birth is longer, the period is longer. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, the average HDI of regions of the World and groups of countries are also included for comparison. Countries fall into four broad human development categories, Very High Human Development, High Human Development, Medium Human Development, because of the new methodology adopted since the 2010 Human Development Report, the new reported HDI figures appear lower than the HDI figures in previous reports. From 2007 to 2010, the first category was referred to as developed countries, the original high human development category has been split into two as above in the report for 2007. The country with the largest decrease in HDI since 1998 is Zimbabwe, the country with the largest decrease since 2009 is Cape Verde, which decreased by 0.170. The only year without a Human Development Report since 1990 was 2012, the latest report was launched on 21 March 2017

40.
Malagasy ariary
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The ariary is the currency of Madagascar. It is subdivided into 5 iraimbilanja and is one of only two non-decimal currencies currently circulating, the names ariary and iraimbilanja derive from the pre-colonial currency, with ariary being the name for a silver dollar. Iraimbilanja means literally one iron weight and was the name of an old coin worth 1⁄5 of an ariary, the ariary was introduced in 1961. It was equal to 5 Malagasy francs, coins and banknotes were issued denominated in both francs and ariary, with the sub-unit of the ariary, the iraimbilanja, worth 1⁄5 of an ariary and therefore equal to the franc. The ariary replaced the franc as the currency of Madagascar on January 1,2005. Coins and banknotes were denominated in both the official francs and the semi-official ariary and iraimbilanja since 1961, on early issues, the franc denomination was the most prominent. However, from 1978, higher value coins were issued denominated only in ariary, in 1993, new 500 ariary-2500 franc note and 5000 ariary-25,000 franc were issued with ariary slightly more prominent. On banknotes issued since July 31,2003, the denomination is displayed prominently. Lower denomination coins are now issued denominated in ariary but with the main design unchanged. In 1965,1 franc and 2 francs coins were issued, followed by 5 francs in 1966 and 10 and 20 francs in 1970. The term venty sy kirobo derives from names used in the 19th century for 1⁄6, in 1978,10 and 20 ariary coins were issued which did not show the denomination in francs. These were followed in 1992 by 5 and 50 ariary coins as well as smaller 10 and 20 ariary, in 2003–2004,1 and 2 ariary coins not bearing the franc denomination were also introduced. Coins in circulation are listed below, bold denotes the most prominent denomination, while italic denotes an equivalence that is not shown on the coin. In 1961, the Institut d’Émission Malgache introduced banknotes in denominations of 50,100,500,1000 and 5000 francs and these notes were overprints on earlier notes of the Bank of Madagascar and Comoros, with the denomination in ariary included in the overprint. Regular banknotes in the same denominations followed between 1963 and 1969, the denomination in ariary was written only in words, not numerals. On 12 June 1973, the Banky Foiben’ny Repoblika Malagasy was created by Ordinance No, 73-025, taking over the functions of the Institut d’Émission Malgache, including the issuance of banknotes. In 1974 new notes were issued in the denominations as had been used earlier. In December 1975, a constitution was overwhelmingly approved in a referendum

41.
ISO 4217
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The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency

Madagascar (2005 film)
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Madagascar is a 2005 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released to theaters on May 27,2005. The film tells the story of four animals from the Central Park Zoo who unexpectedly find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar. It features the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada P

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Theatrical release poster

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Schwimmer at the film's British premiere in London.

Malagasy language
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Malagasy is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere, the Malagasy language is the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Its distinctiveness from nearby African languages w

1.
Sorabe Malagasy Arabic script

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Malagasy bible

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Malagasy lexicon (1773) (Collection BULAC Paris)

French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and

1.
The "arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.

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Regions where French is the main language

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Town sign in Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of Rechmaya in Lebanon.

Flag of Madagascar
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The flag of Madagascar was adopted on 14 October 1958, two years before the independence of that nation, as Madagascar prepared for a referendum on its status in the French Community. The colors of the flag represent Madagascars history, yearning for independence, red and white were the colors of the Merina kingdom, which succumbed to France in 189

1.
Madagascar

Seal of Madagascar
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The seal of Madagascar includes an outline map of the island at the center, and below it the head of a Zebu. Colors used include red, green, yellow, black, green and red rays emanate from the States map, making it look like the Sun and also the Ravenala, a plant typical of Madagascar. Various versions of the Constitution Article 4 have used other m

1.
Coat of arms of the Merina Kingdom in 1896

2.
Seal of Madagascar

Africa
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Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earths total surface area and 20.4 % of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the human population. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos and it

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Map of Africa

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Africa

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Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered on November 24, 1974, in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia 's Afar Depression

African Union
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The African Union is a continental union consisting of all 55 countries on the African continent. It was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AUs secretariat, the

Antananarivo
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Antananarivo, then temporarily French Tananarive, also known by its French colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The larger urban area surrounding the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra, is the capital of Analamanga region. The city is located 1,280 m above the sea level in the center of the island, all 1

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Central Antananarivo, including Lake Anosy

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Old city gate

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Sovereigns addressed the public at the historic town square of Andohalo.

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Lake Anosy was created in the 19th century to provide hydraulic power to industrial factories.

Ethnic groups
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into ano

1.
Before the 1970s, the Korowai people of Papua were an uncontacted people. Their population numbers no more than 3,000.

2.
The Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of Northern Iraq.

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Some European ethnic groups, such as Basque people, do not constitute a majority in any one country.

Merina people
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The Merina people, also known as the Imerina, Antimerina or Hova, are the largest ethnic group in Madagascar. They are the highlander Malagasy ethnic group of the African island and their origins are mixed, predominantly with Malayo-Indonesians arriving before the 5th century AD, then many centuries later by Arabs, Africans and other ethnic groups.

1.
Rainilaiarivony, the Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of the Merina kingdom, reviewing his troops in 1883

Betsimisaraka people
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The Betsimisaraka make up approximately fifteen percent of the Malagasy people and are the second largest ethnic group in Madagascar after the Merina. They occupy a large stretch of the eastern seabord of Madagascar, the Betsimisaraka have a long history of extensive interaction with European seafarers and traders that produced a significant subset

1.
Betsimisaraka women

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Ratsimilaho ruled the united Betsimisaraka from his capital at modern day Foulpointe.

3.
A pirate cemetery at Nosy Boraha. The zana-malata subset of the Betsimisaraka traced their heritage back to intermarriage between European pirates and Betsimisaraka women.

Betsileo people
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The Betsileo are a highland ethnic group of Madagascar, the third largest in terms of population, numbering around 1.5 million and making up about 12.1 percent of the population. They chose their name, meaning The Many Invincible Ones, after an invasion by King Ramitraho of the Menabe kingdom in the early 19th century. The Betsileo occupy the south

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Betsileo children

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Betsileo tomb

3.
Spoon the nineteenth century MHNT

Tsimihety people
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The Tsimihety are a Malagasy ethnic group who are found in the north-central region of Madagascar. Their name means those who never cut their hair, a behavior likely linked to their independence from Sakalava kingdom, located to their west and they are found in mountainous part of the island. They are one of the largest Malagasy ethnic groups and t

1.
Distribution of Malagasy ethnic groups

Sakalava people
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The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the western and northwest region of the island, the Sakalava are one of the smaller ethnic groups, constituting about 6.2 percent of the total population, that is over 1,210,000 in 2014. Their name means people of the long valleys and they occupy the western edge of the island from T

1.
Sakalava woman

2.
Door with a carved crocodile, exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.

Antaisaka people
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The Antesaka, also known as Tesaka, or Tesaki, are an ethnic group of Madagascar traditionally concentrated south of Farafangana along the south-eastern coast. They have since spread widely throughout the island. The Antesaka form about 5% of the population of Madagascar and they have mixed African, Arab and Malayo-Indonesian ancestry, like the wes

1.
Distribution of Malagasy ethnic groups

Antandroy
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The Antandroy are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group of Madagascar inhabiting the arid southern part of the island called Androy. They are particularly known for their dances, cotton woven clothing, elaborately decorated tombs. The herding of zebu remains the economic activity of the Antandroy. The name Tandroy means people of the thorns in refer

1.
Antandroy girl

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The lokanga played by a member of the group Vilon'androy

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A performance of Antandroy dance

Ethnic groups of Madagascar
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Madagascars population is predominantly of mixed Austronesian and East African origin. The problem with population estimation in Madagascar is that data is very old, the last population census was carried out in 1993, after an initial 1975 census. There was an attempt at a census in 2009, but this ultimately failed due to political instability. The

1.
Antananarivo Toamasina

2.
Demographics of Madagascar, Data of FAO, year 2005; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Demonym
–
A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a mem

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Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has not adopted the term "demonyn" for these adjectives and nouns

Malagasy people
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The Malagasy are the ethnic group that forms nearly the entire population of Madagascar. This division has its roots in historical patterns of settlement, sometime later, a large number of settlers arrived from East Africa and established kingdoms along the relatively unpopulated coastlines. The difference in ethnic origins remains somewhat evident

1.
Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

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Distribution of Malagasy ethnic groups.

3.
Eusèbe Jaojoby

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Ranavalona I

Politics of Madagascar
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Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Senate and the National Assembly, the Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Madagascars first President, Philibert Tsiranana, was elected when his Social Democratic Party gained power at independence in 1960 and was re

1.
Madagascar

Unitary state
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The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states,165 of them are governed as unitary states, unitary states are contrasted with federal states. In a unitary state, sub-national units are created and abolished, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an example of a unitary stat

1.
Unitary states

Semi-presidential system
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A semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of a state. There are two subtypes of semi-presidentialism, premier-presidentialism and president-parliamentarism. Under the premier-presidential system, the minister and

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Presidential republics with a full presidential system.

Constitutional republic
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It is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology, composition, in the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval

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Vaishali was the capital of the Vajjian Confederacy, an early republic.

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A map of the Roman Republic

3.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Neptune offers the wealth of the sea to Venice, 1748–50. This painting is an allegory of the power of the Republic of Venice.

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Beginning of the Republic of Metz. Election of the first Head-Alderman in 1289, by Auguste Migette. Metz was then a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Hery Rajaonarimampianina
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Hery Rajaonarimampianina is a Malagasy politician who has been President of Madagascar since January 2014. Previously he served as Minister of Finance under President Andry Rajoelina and he won the vote in a second round, defeating Jean-Louis Robinson, the candidate of Marc Ravalomananas camp. Once he was elected, Rajaonarimampianina holds the reco

Upper house
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An upper house, sometimes called a Senate, is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the house is usually smaller. Examples of upper houses in countries include the UKs House of Lords, Canadas Senate, Indias Rajya Sabha, Russias Federation Council, Irelands Seanad, G

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The Canadian Senate chamber at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario.

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Inside the Australian Senate

Senate of Madagascar
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The Senate is the upper chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Madagascar. The Senate has 33 members,22 are indirectly elected, one each of the 22 regions of Madagascar. As of 9 February 2016 its President is Honoré Rakotomanana, the Senate existed under the First Republic and was a weaker body than the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliam

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The Madagascar Senate convenes in a building near the Anosy and Mahamasina neighborhoods of Antananarivo.

2.
Madagascar

Lower house
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A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position below the house, in many legislatures worldwide. A legislature composed of one house is described as unicameral. In comparison with the house, lower houses frequently display certain characteristics, Powers In a pa

1.
Inside the Australian House of Representatives

2.
Dáil Éireann, Republic of Ireland

National Assembly of Madagascar
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The lower house is the National Assembly. The Assembly has 151 members, elected for a term in single-member and two-member constituencies. The Senate has 33 members,22 are elected, one from each district of Madagascar, the last election was held on 20 December 2013. List of Presidents of the National Assembly of Madagascar Official website

1.
Madagascar

Independence
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Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over the territory. The opposite of independence is a dependent territory, Independence does not necessarily mean freedom. Whether the attainment of independence is different f

1.
John Trumbull 's Declaration of Independence in 1776

France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territ

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One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC

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Flag

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The Maison Carrée was a temple of the Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the Roman Empire.

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With Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the Frankish monarchy, elective and secular until then, became hereditary and of divine right.

Malagasy constitutional referendum, 2010
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A constitutional referendum was held in Madagascar on 17 November 2010, in which voters approved a proposal for the states fourth Constitution. The Malagasy people were asked to answer Yes or No to the new constitution. Rajoelina heads the governing Highest Transitional Authority, an interim junta established following the military-backed coup déta

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Madagascar

Geography of Madagascar
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Madagascar is a large island in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of southern Africa, east of Mozambique. It is the fourth largest island in the world, the highest point is Maromokotro, in the Tsaratanana Massif region in the north of the island, at 2,876 metres. The capital Antananarivo is in the Hauts Plateaux near the centre of the island,

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Land coverage (left) and topographical (right) maps of Madagascar.

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Village in the central highlands.

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Majahilo river at Miandrivazo.

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This astronaut photograph highlights two estuaries along the north-western coastline of Madagascar.

Demographics of Madagascar
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Madagascars population is predominantly of mixed Austronesian and East African origin. The problem with population estimation in Madagascar is that data is very old, the last population census was carried out in 1993, after an initial 1975 census. There was an attempt at a census in 2009, but this ultimately failed due to political instability. The

1.
Antananarivo Toamasina

2.
Demographics of Madagascar, Data of FAO, year 2005; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

List of countries and dependencies by population
–
This is a list of countries and dependent territories by population. For instance, the United Kingdom is considered as a single entity while the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are considered separately, in addition, this list includes certain states with limited recognition not found in ISO 3166-1. The population figures do

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A map of world population in 2014

Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units e

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Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order

Purchasing power parity
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Observed deviations of the exchange rate from purchasing power parity are measured by deviations of the real exchange rate from its PPP value of 1. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of exchange rates. For example, suppose that two countries produce the same amounts of goods as each

1.
Big Mac hamburgers, like this one from Japan, are similar worldwide.

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GDP Per capita by countries in 2014, calculated using PPP exchange rates, based on IMF data.

Gini coefficient
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The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nations residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality. It was developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini, the Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribut

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Graphical representation of the Gini coefficient The graph shows that the Gini coefficient is equal to the area marked A divided by the sum of the areas marked A and B, that is, Gini = A / (A + B). It is also equal to 2* A due to the fact that A + B = 0.5 (since the axes scale from 0 to 1).

Human Development Index
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The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the level is higher. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Developme

1.
Mahbub ul Haq

2.
Amartya Sen

List of countries by Human Development Index
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This is a list of all the countries by the Human Development Index as included in a United Nations Development Programmes Human Development Report. The latest report was released on 21 March 2017 and compiled on the basis of estimates for 2015, in the 2010 Human Development Report a further Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index was introduced

1.
0.900 and over

Malagasy ariary
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The ariary is the currency of Madagascar. It is subdivided into 5 iraimbilanja and is one of only two non-decimal currencies currently circulating, the names ariary and iraimbilanja derive from the pre-colonial currency, with ariary being the name for a silver dollar. Iraimbilanja means literally one iron weight and was the name of an old coin wort

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500 franc (100 ariary) banknote (1993)

ISO 4217
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The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code

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An airline ticket showing the price in the ISO 4217 code " EUR " (bottom left) and not the currency sign €

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A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by a money changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency.

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A sign on Australia 's Great Ocean Road reminding foreign motorists to keep left. Such signs are placed at the exit of parking areas associated with scenic views, where other road traffic may at times be sparse.

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Right-hand traffic

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One of many road signs in the British county of Kent placed on the right-hand side of the road.

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The change of traffic directions at the Laos–Thai border takes place on Lao territory just off the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge.

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The economically important Silk Road (red) and spice trade routes (blue) were blocked by the Ottoman Empire in ca. 1453 with the fall of the Byzantine Empire. This spurred exploration, and a new sea route around Africa was found, triggering the Age of Discovery.

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Extent of the Indian Ocean according to the CIA World Factbook

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British heavy cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall under Japanese air attack and heavily damaged on 5 April 1942

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The Nothofagus plant genus illustrates Gondwanan distribution, having descended from the supercontinent and existing in present-day Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the Southern Cone. Fossils have also recently been found in Antarctica.

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The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

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A late Roman statue depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in Venice

3.
Coin of Theodoric

4.
Mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers

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Shaded and colored image from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission —shows an elevation model of New Zealand's Alpine Fault running about 500 km (300 mi) long. The escarpment is flanked by a vast chain of hills squeezed between the fault and the mountains of New Zealand 's Southern Alps. Northeast is towards the top.

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Escarpment face of a cuesta, broken by a fault, Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee